Progress on women’s pay in the public service

The Government has made good progress towards eliminating the gender pay gap in starting salaries for the same roles in the public service, Minister of State Services, Chris Hipkins and Minister for Women Julie Anne Genter announced today.

It’s one of the key focus areas of the Government’s action plan to fix women’s pay across government agencies.

“Currently, two thirds of public service agencies have no, or very small, gender pay gaps in starting salaries, or have concrete plans to ensure that gender isn’t a factor when it comes to pay,” Chris Hipkins said.

“To support the work public service leaders are doing in this space, the State Services Commission has recently released guidelines to agencies, produced by the Gender Pay Gap and Pay Equity Taskforce, in partnership with the Public Service Association (PSA).

“The Coalition Government is committed to ensuring that everyone in our public service is paid fairly for the role they do,” Chris Hipkins said.

“We know starting salaries can have a major impact on an organisation’s overall gender pay gap, and it’s encouraging to see this progress, Julie Anne Genter said.

“I want to acknowledge the commitment of chief executives and their human resources teams for leading this complex work as part of our Gender Pay Gap Action Plan.

“This work is a first step on a journey, and agencies are at different stages.

“Agencies have different workforces and different issues driving their gaps. Some of these issues are more complex than others and may take longer to resolve.

“We’re making good progress but it’s going to take time,” Julie Anne Genter said.