More women than ever in public service, gender pay gap 14%   26 Nov 2015

More women than ever in public service, gender pay gap at 14%

By Fiona Rotherham

Nov. 26 (BusinessDesk) - Women in the public service are paid 14 percent on average less than men, which is 2.2 percent worse than New Zealand’s overall gender pay gap, the State Services Commission annual breakdown shows.

Data in the Human Resource Capability Survey shows the gender pay gap comes despite the public service employing the highest ever proportion of women – 60.5 percent, compared to 47 percent in the overall New Zealand workforce.

A larger proportion of women work in lower-paid occupational groups compared to men, which contributes to the gender pay gap, the survey said. For example, women make up 82 percent of clerical and administrative roles. However, that occupation still has an 11 percent pay gap.

The historic narrowing of the gender pay gap started to slow in 2010 although, as the survey said, the current level is down from 16.1 percent a decade ago.

PSA national secretary Glenn Barclay said "women in the public service are particularly poorly served, still being paid on average 14 percent less than their poorly paid male colleagues.”

He said in the past five and a half years, private sector workers have seen their pay grow 40 percent faster than in the public service.

The State Services Commission says the proportion of women in senior leadership roles has been increasing over the past decade, to 44.2 percent in 2015, up 2.2 percent on last year. If the trend of the past five years continues, the public service will reach half female representation in senior leadership by 2021.

Senior women leaders continue to be paid less than their male counterparts, although they’re better off than women in other public sector roles. The senior leadership pay gap is 8.9 percent in 2015, having risen slightly in the past year and is nearly a percent up on five years ago.

By occupational group, the public service pay gap is highest for managers, at 13.7 per cent.

The commission says gender pay gaps without occupational groups still reflect compositional differences between the genders in terms of seniority and experience. For example, women make up 52 percent of managers in the public service but only 44 percent of senior managers.

When adjusted for occupation, seniority and experience, the average pay gap falls by around two-thirds, it says.

Factors contributing to the gender pay gap are complex, the commission says, with the data not taking into consideration the impact of caring responsibilities on career progression and pay, which anecdotally, is said to be a key factor. Caring responsibilities vary significantly by gender, with women comprising 99 percent of the 642 employees on parental leave as at June 30 .

The commission said it was trying to improve diversity in a number of ways, including promoting flexible work initiatives across agencies and encouraging sectors to think about gender and ethnic diversity when recruiting.

(BusinessDesk)

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