News of the finance and information workers union
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March-April 2006
Pay gap widens for women
The NZ Income Survey for the June 2005 quarter, released by Statistics New Zealand in October that year, showed a widening gap in the income between men and women. The Council of Trade Unions was dismayed by the figures which showed that pay for full time men went up approximately 6.3% since the June 2004 quarter, compared with 3.2% for women. The rates for male part time workers increased by 8%, as compared to 2.8% for women. Overall, this means that the gender pay gap has increased – with women earning 82% on average of what men do, as compared to 86% in 2004.
“The growth in the gap is significant and is a huge concern,” said Helen Kelly, Vice President of the Council of Trade Unions. “While workers will be pleased with the overall increase of 5.8% to wages and salaries since June 2004, what these figures show is that women did not get an equal share of those increases. “The Government has set up a pay equity taskforce to address the pay gap in the state sector and these latest figures show the need to extend that work to the private sector also.” said Helen Kelly.
The majority of finance employees are women. Finsec, which represents workers in the four major banks, insurance companies and other finance companies, has 81% female members and 19% male union members.
The gender pay gap problem in the finance sector is directly related to limited career paths. Despite the predominance of women among the four bank’s workforces, senior management and leadership positions are disproportionately held by men.
Finsec’s General Secretary, Andrew Casidy, argues that: “Banks often claim their EEO practices are outstanding in relation to promotion of women into management positions. The reality is that twenty years ago the manager of a local bank branch was a very well paid person, was important in their local community, and with a larger amount of power within their bank. Today an entry level manager of a local bank branch is probably earning close to (or less than) what their staff earn, taking bonuses and overtime into account, and is in a position of limited power. It is these management positions that women within banks are often promoted into.” The glass ceiling appears to have been lowered in banking, not broken.
