I want the Government to legislate so bigger employers have to publish their pay gaps so we can choose to work for them or buy from them or invest in them, writes Jo Cribb
Opinion: Thanks, mate. It’s a phrase we say often. If we were to say it more frequently, we’d be paid off with better relationships, lower blood pressure and fewer aches and pains.
Researchers found that people were more willing to help and be friends with people who showed gratitude. When we say thanks, we improve our relationships and overall health.
We can even make life a bit better for those around us. Bystanders to thankful exchanges end up feeling better watching people being kind to each other.
But kindness, gratitude and being thankful just feels a bit harder at the moment when our screens (and maybe even our day-to-day lives) seem more filled with hate, disputes, and anger.
So, when working on the next phase of the Mind the Gap campaign, while we want to get our point across, we didn’t want to add to the negative noise.
READ MORE:
* The Aussies have thrashed us on pay transparency
* The 50th birthday of the Equal Pay Act is no cause for celebration
* It’s time we all stepped up against unjust pay gaps
As many regular readers will know, I have a thing about pay gaps. You may even be tired of me writing about pay gaps.
I want people to be paid without any reference to their gender or ethnicity.
The pay gap for women in New Zealand is 9.2 percent and hasn’t changed much for a decade.
I was acting up in a management role, given an ‘acting up’ allowance and then offered the job at that rate. Tens of thousands of dollars of underpayment later, it was only after I left, and my role was advertised that I found out I’d been duped.
The average hourly wage earned by Māori employees is about 82 percent of the average hourly Pākehā wage. The average wage earned by Pacific employees is about 77 percent of that figure.
For Māori women it’s 81 percent and Pacific women 75 percent.
I want the Government to legislate so medium and large employers have to publish their pay gaps so we can choose to work for them or buy off them or invest in them. Many businesses do this already.
Overseas experience shows when this happens, pay gaps drop quickly by 20-40 percent.
Gender differentials in hourly earnings, by age band
Mind the Gap is launching a campaign calling for the Prime Minister to step up and honour the promises his government has made to fix pay gaps.
So, we are thanking the Prime Minister for what he hopefully will do in the coming weeks and months: introduce that bill that will help make pay gaps a thing of the past.
Mind the Gap is calling on all of us to thank him for what he can and should do. All of us will have someone affected by pay gaps, whether it is ourselves, our daughters, our partners, sisters, colleagues, friends, and family.
Many of us have personal stories. I was acting up in a management role, given an ‘acting up’ allowance and then offered the job at that rate. Tens of thousands of dollars of underpayment later, it was only after I left, and my role was advertised that I found out I’d been duped.
By thanking the Prime Minister, not only are you showing support for those affected by pay gaps, and showing that fixing pay gaps matters to you, you may also get those health and social benefits of showing gratitude.
That’s a better deal than free steak knives.
It’s also a bit uncomfortable being thanked for something you didn’t do. Cringeworthy even.
We are hoping that the Prime Minister is proud to be thanked and proud of the legacy he can create, so no need for cringe.
And should the Prime Minister introduce the bill, you will also be pleased to know that I will happily have to find something else to write about.
