I’ve never formally been promoted. I’ve always willingly taken on the extra responsibilities with no pay increase or incentive other than a thank you, job well done – sometimes wouldn’t even get that. Then taking on the extra responsibilities would become an expectation. I myself am to blame for that for not speaking up, but as Pasifika and me quite plainly not knowing any better for myself, I would just do it just because that’s what we do. They are the hierarchy so you do as you’re told or you’re a helpful person so of course you are going to do it, no questions asked. I’ve been told I have potential and there’s room for me to progress, or we’re working on getting you a pay increase, there’s just a few things to be sorted and a few people we need to discuss with first, and then silence – all of which were things I think were said just because I wanted to hear it. Nothing ever came about it. Could I have pushed myself more, of course. But how? I’m at the bottom of the food chain here, who’s going to listen to me? Not looking for pity here by the way – just sharing my experiences and thoughts lol. (S282) Pacific women are promoted less often than men The negative experiences of a lack of promotion were shared predominantly by female Pacific workers. The intersectionality of ethnicity and gender is a double disadvantage for Pacific women who shared that this was a hindrance to their promotion. These experiences are mirrored in research literature, which identifies that Pacific women experience more barriers to promotion than Pacific men. In the manufacturing sector, a limited number of Pacific workers, mainly male, shared that they had been promoted into a leadership role. For Pacific female workers, their experiences fell into three categories. They told us that they had “never [had] an opportunity to be promoted – they expect you to be happy with what you get” (S016), they were promoted only after decades of service – “took 40 years before I become a Lab Manager” (S008) or they were promoted without being given the pay to match or making the role official with a contract – “in my old job, I was promoted to a new position and I thought I would get a pay increase and a new contract but didn’t – also still had to go back and forth multitasking” (S032). Experiences were similar in the construction sector. By contrast, there were some positive stories concerning promotion in the health sector. Some Pacific workers, most of whom were women, shared that they had positive experiences with promotion. Most of these Pacific workers held postgraduate degrees. We note, however, that we did hear from other Pacific female healthcare workers with postgraduate qualifications who were not promoted. Voices of Pacific peoples 49