The Government’s decision to rewrite pay equity laws to
save its Budget means 65,000 mainly female care and support
workers will continue to be underpaid by $148.50 a week, new
figures calculated and released today by the PSA
show.
Care and support workers have waited more than
three years for the Government to fund their pay equity
claim, meaning they have missed out on as of today about
$19,480 in pay.
“Despite the Government’s spin,
women workers are losing, and will continue to lose, money
because of this sexist attack on lower paid, mainly female
workers to plug a Budget hole caused by reckless tax cuts
and tax breaks for wealthy landlords,” said Assistant
Secretary with the Public Service Association Te Pūkenga
Here Tikanga Mahi, Melissa Woolley.
“Women
are subsiding the tax cuts and the failure of the Government
to effectively manage its Budget,” said Woolley, a former
care and support worker who has played a significant role in
pay equity negotiations.
Yesterday’s
announcement will set back the care and support workers’
claim, one of the 33 pay equity claims covering at least
150,000 workers across education, health, funded, tertiary,
local government and public service sectors.
The care
and support workers’ claim was a result of the 2017 pay
equity legislation that increased the pay of care and
support workers to 21 per cent above the minimum wage. This
increase was in recognition that care and support workers
have been historically underpaid because the sector is
female dominated.
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The 2017 legislation had a five-year
time limit, which expired in June 2022. Since then, as a
result of successive governments’ refusal to fund a new
pay equity settlement, about 65,000 mainly female care and
support workers are losing $148.50 a week they are entitled
to. As of today, that amounts to $19,480 each.
With no
new pay equity settlement being agreed, care and support
workers have seen their hard-won pay equity settlement
eroded by inflation and the failure to maintain relativity
above the minimum wage.
“These workers are now largely
back on the minimum wage, and many have had no wage increase
for two years, making a mockery of the pay equity
settlement,” Woolley said.
“The Minister has told the
House that the new 10-year review period in the legislation
means that the care and support workers will not be able to
have their claim revisited until 2027.
“Pushing the
review out to 2027 when it should have been completed in
2022 is blatantly unfair. It makes a mockery of Government
claims the 10-year review period will be adequate to ensure
ongoing equity for workers.
“The care and support
claim has jumped through every test, survived every change
up until now. This is another heartbreaking decision to not
give these workers the pay equity they deserve and
need.
“Since 2022, successive governments have been
ripping off women workers, effectively using their
commitment to the people they support, hard work and lost
wages to subsidise the provision of care and support for the
vulnerable in our communities.
“Now by further
delaying settlements and making them much harder to achieve,
this Government is further exploiting these largely female
workers to plug the holes in their Budget. It’s blatant
sexism effectively imposing a penalty tax on women
workers.”
Notes:
PSA analysis of lost wages is
based on the 21 per cent margin above the minimum wage that
care and support workers received in the 2017 settlement.
The settlement rates, or the minimum wage rate, whichever
was higher has been compared with what the rate would have
been if the 21 per cent margin had been maintained. The
comparison is based on a 30-hour work
week.
