September 1, 2017 2:00pm by David Farrar

Gender pay gap drops significantly

The gender pay gap was 9.4 percent in the June 2017 quarter, down from 12.0 percent in the June 2016 quarter, Stats NZ said today. This is the smallest gender pay gap in five years, after women’s hourly pay rose at a faster pace than men’s in the past year.

“Recently, there’s been a spotlight on gender pay inequality in New Zealand,” labour and income statistics manager Sean Broughton said.

“The decrease from a 12 percent gap last year is the biggest drop in the gender pay gap since the series began in 1998.”

I am sure all those many politicians and lobby groups who have been campaigning on this issue for the last year will welcome this news.

In 2008 the gender pay gap was 12.5% and in 2017 it is 9.0%.

Male average earnings went up 1.6% this year and female earnings up a massive 4.6%. This excludes the pay rise for home care workers as that came into effect on 1 July and this data is to 30 June. So the next set of figures may have an even smaller gap. The decline in the gender pay gap in 2017 is the largest decline since the series began in 1988.

Overall the median weekly earnings for paid employment increased by $35 or 3.8%. That is a decent increase with inflation being so low.

If you adjust for inflation, the real increase in earnings from 2008 to 2017 has been: