Pay Equity with Your Porridge

Pay Equity with Your Porridge Breakfast Seminar: Mairi Steele and Philippa Hall, EOWA.

Mairi Steele and Philippa Hall were guests of the MBC for a well attended breakfast seminar on July 2nd.

Recent research undertaken by Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Agency (EOWA) has highlighted the misconceptions about pay equity which exist in the business community and Mairi’s focus was on how to overcome that. While the research showed that overwhelmingly there was awareness that men earn more than women (94% of business), only 37% of EOWA contacts believed that a gender pay gap existed in their own organisation. The research showed further, that while there was overwhelming support for something to be done, under 40% of reporting organisations conduct any gender pay equity analysis. The data suggest that only 10% of reporting organisations have an action plan to improve gender pay equity.

Mairi noted that for many businesses the argument is that gender pay inequity is ‘not our problem’; it is the result of the award system or of the job evaluation process. Mairi highlighted the steps that EOWA is taking to respond to these perceptions. These include changing the Employer of Choice criteria so that these now include a requirement for a detailed analysis of workforce remuneration and gender equity pay issues. Other highlighted actions include promoting Equal Pay Day - which will be on 4 September 2010, provision by EOWA of an on-line pay equity course, and developing standards for gender inclusive job evaluation.

Philippa, who is the former Director, Pay and Employment Equity, NZ Dept of Labour and now working with EOWA, shared her views on more inclusive approaches to evaluating work and enabling preparedness to implement the remuneration implications. This included the development of resources for business which are accessible on-line.

There was a lively discussion around the issues of causation of and remedies for gender pay inequity. This resulted in some interesting observations (including questions of unionisation and the ‘reluctance’ of women to push the issue) from the diverse audience, which included HR practitioners and union officials.