only at the age of 36 do I have the courage to aim for top dollar – having the ability to meld all my life experiences. (S091) Some people linked these responsibilities to the concept of ‘essential work’. Work in the community, particularly caring work, is unpaid, voluntary and undervalued, yet it is an essential part of the economy – one that often enables those in paid employment to do their work. It is also often done by women and older people. One key informant commented: So looking if society should be structured just around essential, what is considered to be essential work? And a lot of that essential work actually is being carried out by people on benefits, either caring for family, volunteering, all these types, like creative work, all these kinds of things aren’t even considered to be of value. (T003) Upholding their community and family obligations sometimes came at a cost in the workplace. When she took time off to help her family, one healthcare worker told us how she was made to feel unreliable: No option for promotion in my current role. Taking time off in previous roles to care for my children and elderly mother gave me a reputation of being unreliable at work, because I chose to be reliable to my family. (S105). She felt Pacific workers were perceived “as lazy when we stay home to care for sick family member” (S105). Essential workers The phrase ‘essential worker’ is one that has become prominent since COVID-19 arrived in Aotearoa New Zealand in early 2020. During lockdowns, for example, those deemed essential workers were permitted to leave their homes and continue their employment while everyone else was expected to stay at home. Many of the occupations identified as essential work had a high concentration of Pacific peoples. Much of this work was also done for low pay and at the risk of Pacific peoples’ own health. One key informant commented: This whole idea of essential services that was born out of COVID and seeing that actually all the essential work in our community is considered to be low skilled and low waged, but actually, when 66 the shit hits the fan, all of the things that we deem important are the things that hold us together. (T003) This idea extended to other industries, with people identifying the lack of recognition of essential but often lowly paid and unrecognised workers. In healthcare, for example, our key informant identified the critical work done by cleaners and orderlies in preventing the spread of infection and assisting patients: In terms of health, there’s a hierarchy of roles. How do you address inequity? I mean, if you take away your cleaners and your orderlies right, the place will fall apart. I know it sounds philosophical and probably I’m dreaming, but in terms of hierarchy of essentialness and importance of roles, is that a factor in the remuneration structure at all? (T003) Another key informant saw similar issues in other industries and identified the need to change the conversation about what kind of work was really essential and how this would impact the valuing of Pacific peoples’ work: Something I really wanted to pinpoint, and again you might already have this, but exploitation of Pacific people and our labour with RSE, caregivers, factory workers, in those spaces especially, and we see with our essential workers who have really kept our country going – so many being Pasifika and so many putting their health on the line constantly, even before lockdown, as well. The type of work that we are doing not being valued, and I think changing that conversation from the type of work we are doing being low skilled to the type of work we are doing is actually high risk in terms of our health – the implications of that. (T012) One worker outlined what they would like to see in the workplace instead: As a Pacific, we are often juggling being the primary provider, parent, carer for our own parents and also community involvement (e.g. church). A good workplace recognises the many hats we wear and values the unique attributes and skills we bring and is understanding of this. Some workplaces tend to think they have the right to own all of our time between 9am–5pm and everything else in our life needs to stop so we can be fully devoted to our work during those set hours. This is unrealistic ,and