By Lucy Craymer
WELLINGTON (Reuters) – New Zealand’s Labour government, trailing in opinion polls ahead of an October election, said on Friday it plans to require large firms to publish gender pay gap data in an effort to get equal pay for the country’s women.
With only two months to the Oct. 14 polls the government will need to be re-election or gain bipartisan support after the polls for the gender pay gap policy to be legislated.
It said it plans initially to require 900 public sector companies, which employ more than 250 employees each, to report their gender pay gap. After four years it plans to extend the requirement to all companies with more than 100 workers.
“Countries we compare ourselves to including Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom have already successfully introduced gender pay gap reporting. We need to ensure we’re staying in line with international standards,” said Minister for Women Jan Tinetti.
“The reality is that women have different experiences in the workplace than men, and change is needed.”
As of June 30, the gender pay gap in the public service was 7.7%, according to data from the Public Service Commission.
The governing Labour Party is currently lagging in opinion polls. A poll release Thursday by the Taxpayers’Union and Curia Market Research finds that the centre-right parties of National and ACT will have enough support to form a government.
(Reporting by Lucy Craymer; Editing by Michael Perry)
