Entering the Twilight Zone: The Local Complexities of Pay and Employment Equity in New Zealand

Abstract

This article introduces the recent pay and employment equity situation in the New Zealand state sector through a discussion of research carried out for a Pay and Employment Equity Taskforce. It investigates the twilight zone of pay and employment equity -the murky situations where pay and employment equity programmes already exist, but progress for senior women has stalled for no obvious reasons. Qualitative research is necessary to make sense of these complex situations and to complement labourmarket level studies. The example used is a study of teachers in New Zealand schools, where a range of complex reasons, including lack of support, gendered job designs and intense workloads, creates a bottleneck for women at senior levels. The authors argue that highly decentralized human resources practices work against progress in equal employment opportunity in the state sector.

Unmanageable Inequalities: Sexism in the Film Industry

“…Where talk of worker rights is marginalized, discussion of gender inequalities is almost absent, in spite of the fact that for many decades there has been a legitimated regime of equal opportunities and anti-discrimination in New Zealand (Jones and Torrie, 2009). There have been no diversity policies, no ‘dual agenda’, no official statistics focusing on gender in film industry work, and unlike other film funding bodies (eg SFI, 2012), the New Zealand Film Commission (NZFC) has had no diversity policies in relation to gender.…”

From evidence to action: Applying gender mainstreaming to pay gaps in the Welsh public sector

“…This was an encouraging finding, demonstrating that in this set of public sector organizations women had the potential to gain part-time employment in higher level positions. Nevertheless, as demonstrated in previous research (Jones & Torrie, 2009;Koskina, 2009), men were over-represented in all cases in the highest grades, so this prompted further qualitative work and a series of actions in line with the change management phase of the research (see below). Across the board, the majority of full-time and part-time jobs were offered as permanent contracts, although men were overrepresented in their share of these full-time and permanent premium employment opportunities.…”

“…As ‘role model employers’, public organizations have a significant role to play in addressing gender equalities, including pay gaps, particularly given the dominant role of women within this sector of the economy (Bullard & Wright, ; Conley, ; Grimshaw, ; Jones et al, forthcoming; Rubery & Rafferty, ). Research on the detailed gender composition of public organizations demonstrates that whilst more women are working in public services, they are much more likely than men to be working in job roles below their qualification levels (Conley, ; Connell, ; Jones & Torrie, ; ONS, ). In terms of pay gaps, the academic evidence on public workplaces is mixed.…”

La construcción de las desigualdades salariales en la industria agroalimentaria

“…Pero recuerda la conveniencia de que, en el ámbito político, las medidas de igualdad aborden los diferentes elementos que dan lugar a la brecha salarial. En la práctica investigadora es necesario también vincular la desigualdad salarial con los diversos aspectos que determinan la diferente posición de hombres y mujeres en los centros de trabajo (Jones y Torrie, 2009;Whitehouse, 2003).…”

“…En España al igual que en otros países las mujeres ganan menos que los hombres. Las estadísticas oficiales ofrecen periódicamente datos sobre la existencia y dimensión del problema, pero no proporcionan información sobre los diferentes aspectos que se considera relevante comprender con el fin de poder diseñar soluciones (Jones y Torrie, 2009). Algunos de estos aspectos son los procesos que dan lugar a las diferencias salariales, la opinión de los principales actores o el papel que juegan las clasificaciones profesionales (Marini, 1989;Rubery et al, 2005).…”