More women than ever in public service – but paid 14% less

Women in the public service are paid 14% on average less than men, which is 2.2% 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%, compared with 47% 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% of clerical and administrative roles. However, that occupation still has an 11% 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% a decade ago.

PSA national secretary Glenn Barclay said "women in the public service are particularly poorly served, still being paid on average 14% 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% 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% in 2015, up 2.2% on last year. If the trend of the past five years continues, the public service will reach 50% 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% in 2015.

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% of managers in the public service but only 44% of senior managers.

When adjusted for occupation, seniority and experience, the average pay gap falls by 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% 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)