Table 7 Number and proportion of employed individuals by ethnicity and gender earning below the 2020 living wage Number earning less than living wage % of group earning less than living wage Pacific women 19,800 36.46 Māori women 49,400 36.06 Asian women 46,200 30.78 Pacific men 17,500 29.91 Māori men 38,500 25.86 European women 144,700 24.45 Asian men 40,800 23.41 European men 99,800 16.86 Ethnicity (prioritised) and Gender Source: Data was taken from the June 2020 quarter of the Household Labour Force Survey in the Integrated Data Infrastructure. Standard HLFS replicate weights were applied. The living wage is announced in April but does not come into effect until 1 September so the 1 September 2019 rate was applied, which was $21.15. Prioritised ethnicity is used. While the living wage was raised generally by some Pacific workers, it was a key issue for a group of striking manufacturing workers with whom the Inquiry team engaged. The primary purpose of their strike action was to gain the living wage. Several of these workers had worked for the employer for 10 years or more and were earning just above the minimum wage. Many of the workers felt that their longer-serving colleagues’ pay should have increased far more than only when the minimum wage increased. Several of the striking workers worked six days a week. They shared concerns about the cost of living increasing while their wages did not keep up. One Pacific worker told us “rent has gone up, food gone up, but our wages not gone up” (T063). Most of the workers talked about needing to provide for their children. The cost of rent, food and petrol had increased and “everything got more and more expensive” (T063). Referencing that the workers lived and worked in Auckland, the city with the highest cost of living in the country, another agreed, saying “it’s very expensive here to live” (T063). One worker shared that her colleagues could not afford to buy healthy food for their children with 46 what they were paid. Another worker talked about doing the undesirable night shift because they get a $10 per shift untaxable allowance. This equates to an additional $60 per week, enabling him to buy more food for his children. Discrimination in negotiating pay rates and pay rises Once in a job, experiences of discrimination surfaced in comparing pay rates with colleagues, pay negotiations and career progression. One Pacific worker told us they only learned they were paid less than a non-Pacific colleague by accident: I had a really negative experience being promoted in a workplace in the health area with a Pacific service. I had similar level of skill and educational background as my colleague who wasn’t Pacific, yet was getting paid $20k more than me. This was only discovered much later on as we started to develop a close friendship and we talked about our salaries. (S071) Negotiating pay was an area in which Pacific workers had experienced discrimination. Several noticed the higher standard required of Pacific peoples than their Pākehā colleagues to prove they were worth the promotion or pay rise: