Pay Equity and Equal Employment Opportunity in New Zealand: Developments 2006/2008 and Evaluation

Abstract

This is the third in a series of LEW papers updating developments relating to pay equity and EEO and evaluating their impact. As with my previous papers, it focuses primarily on gender, but also discusses the overall situation and touches on issues related to ethnicity, age and disability. In the last two years the broad public sector, assisted by the Pay and Employment Equity Unit in the Department of Labour, has made significant progress in reporting on gender issues in most departments and in some parts of the public health and education sector. but practical action to reduce remaining gender pay gaps is a slow process. This paper will discuss these public sector processes and also the private sector situation in the context of a period where women have surpassed men in terms of education outcomes - and hence the need for vigilance around women's position in the labour market is increasingly questioned. With respect to ethnicity, despite non-discrimination legislation, there is substantial evidence of problems encountered by many immigrants entering the labour market. The paper will examine recent evidence on discrimination on the basis of ethnicity, age, and disability and reports/recommendations for its elimination.