Employment CEDAW Arts: 7 | 11 SDGs: 5 | 8 Gender pay gap 18. In May 2018, the Committee for Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights raised concern that the principle of equal pay for work of equal value for women is not reflected in New Zealand’s legislation. The Committee recommended that New Zealand “Adopt measures to incorporate the principle of equal pay for work of equal value in the State party’s legislation and develop a streamlined mechanism to implement it across occupations.”16 19. Statistics New Zealand (StatsNZ) announced a gender pay gap of 9.4% in New Zealand.17 This has stagnated fluctuating between 12.5% and 9.1% between 2008 and 2017.18 The pay gap is even worse for Māori, Pasifika, and Asian women, and women with disabilities.19 20. In May 2018, the Ministry of Women published research on how parenthood contributes to the gender pay gap in New Zealand.20 The study tracked a sample of men and women from five years before their first baby to 10 years after. Men and women without children had a wage difference of 5.7% and men and women who were parents had a wage difference of 12.5%. The research found that women on average experience a 4.4% decrease in hourly wages upon becoming mothers. While men experience no significant decrease. The pay cut is worse the longer the mother takes off to look after children, including up to an 8.3% decrease if they took more than 12 months off. 21. Women in New Zealand are entitled to 18 weeks paid parental leave. Some or all of that entitlement can be transferred to the partner of a mother if the partner is the primary care giver. However, the partner of a mother is not entitled to additional paid leave, separate to that of the mother.21 22. The Ministry for Women’s report Empirical evidence of the gender pay gap in New Zealand showed 80% of the gender pay gap is driven by unexplainable factors such as unconscious and conscious bias that negatively affect the recruitment pay and promotion of women.22 Action is needed to combat these biases. 16 Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, Concluding observations on the fourth periodic report of New Zealand, E/C.12/NZL/CO/4 (1 May 2018), para. 31(d). 17 Percentage in the July 2017 quarter, http://women.govt.nz/work-skills/income/gender-pay-gap 18 http://women.govt.nz/work-skills/income/gender-pay-gap 19 New Zealand Human Rights Commission, Tracking Equality at Work 2018, http://tracking-equality.hrc.co.nz/#/ 20 Isabelle Sin, Kabir Dasgupta, Gail Pacheco, Parenthood and Labour Market Outcomes, Ministry of Women, May 2018, http://women.govt.nz/sites/public_files/Parenthood%20and%20the%20Labour%20Market-slides.pdf) 21 Section 71E of the Parental Leave and Employment Protection Act 1987 22 Ministry for Women (2017) Empirical evidence of the gender pay gap in New Zealand, http://women.govt.nz/sites/public_files/Empirical%20evidence%20of%20GPG%20in%20NZ%20-%20Mar2017_0.pdf 7