Restoring pay equity would boost income of 91,000 families by $300/week – PSA analysis

Source: Public Service Association Te Pūkenga Here Tikanga Mahi

New analysis shows restoring pay equity would:

Provide an income boost for 91,000 families with 136,000 children
Lift an estimated 11,000 children out of poverty
Deliver families six times more a week than the Govt’s average FamilyBoost payment

New PSA analysis shows 136,000 children in 91,000 families would be better off by $300 a week on average if pay equity was restored, confirming again how damaging the Government’s decision to axe claims has been.

The analysis, modelled from Census 2023 data and Treasury’s own figures, shows restoring pay equity would put a combined $1.39 billion a year into the pockets of families with children – an average of $300 a week per family, or around $195 a week for every child.

That would be enough to lift an estimated 11,000 children out of poverty overnight, on the material hardship measure.

“Pay equity for New Zealand women is the right thing to do morally but it also makes fiscal and economic sense. Every party in Parliament should be committed to ensuring that children do not live in poverty in New Zealand in 2026 and pay equity is an important step to making this a reality, said Fleur Fitzsimons, National Secretary for the Public Service Association Te Pūkenga Here Tikanga Mahi.

“You can’t claim to be tackling child poverty with one hand while blocking the single biggest pay rise this country’s lowest-paid workers have ever been offered with the other – our analysis exposes just how cruel and heartless scrapping pay equity was.

“This is who the Government has really hurt – 136,000 children whose families are doing it even tougher in a cost of living crisis because this Government tore up their pay equity claims.

“This cruel and sexist decision was rushed through under urgency in a single day with no warning and without a thought for the families it affected. Our analysis, coupled with an earlier paper on the economic upside of pay equity, exposes the true consequences of this decision and the missed opportunity.

“It’s staggering that this Government spent months trumpeting FamilyBoost as its answer to the cost of living, when pay equity would put more than six times as much into the pockets of families with kids. FamilyBoost pays around $47 a week on average to just 60,000 families, and fewer than 2,000 receive the maximum $120 a week.

“Pay equity would change the lives of so many thousands of families and they wouldn’t have to fill out a single form to get it.”

The PSA’s earlier analysis of Treasury’s own modelling showed reinstating pay equity would grow the economy by $13.5 billion and create 13,000 jobs over four years – a $2.25 return for every dollar spent, better value than the Government’s own flagship growth policies.

“The Government chose to make the Budget numbers work by taking money out of the pockets of low-paid women and their children, while handing tax cuts to landlords and big tobacco,” said Fitzsimons.

“The facts are clear as daylight. Low- and middle-income families spend what they earn in their own communities, supporting local shops and local jobs. That’s money this Government is choosing to withhold – in other words wage theft.

“We will leave no stone unturned until New Zealand women and their families have pay equity.

“We’re calling on the Government, and on every party heading into the election, to front up: will you commit to restoring pay equity and lifting these children out of poverty, or will you keep defending a decision that’s failing families and failing the economy?” said Fitzsimons.

PSA analysis on the cost of pay equity

PSA analysis – Pay equity would improve the lives of 136,000 New Zealand children
23 August Govt’s axing of pay equity cost jobs & GDP growth – PSA analysis

PSA actions to date on pay equity campaign

The PSA has taken a number of steps to fight the Government’s scrapping of pay equity. See the PSA campaign page. Actions include:

The Public Service Association Te Pūkenga Here Tikanga Mahi is Aotearoa New Zealand’s largest trade union, representing and supporting more than 95,000 workers across central government, state-owned enterprises, local councils, health boards and community groups.

MIL OSI