6.1.4 Government-sponsored grants and procurement schemes Outside of comprehensive pay transparency and mandatory annual reporting, various recommendations and initiatives aimed at eliminating pay gaps have been explored internationally to develop gender and ethnicity pay equity policy. The most common recommendations targeted at the workplace and made without specific policy plans, other than pay transparency and mandatory reporting, include enabling flexible but stable work and addressing discrimination at the point of recruitment via processes like anonymised hiring.315 Governments are increasingly only employing and engaging companies that meet minimum workplace equity standards.316 The literature suggests that government grant and procurement programmes seem to be one approach that has been implemented to successfully help in reducing pay gaps. The Canadian Government has established a widely successful grants programme to support employers in developing workplace equity alongside an award for excellence for those making strides toward workplace equity.317 Alternatively, locally administered but centrally funded measures have also been explored. For example, in 2007–09, the UK Government funded an outreach programme that supported ethnic minorities with advice regarding CV preparation, interview skills, confidence building and administrative assistance. Again, this resulted in marked success.318 These examples demonstrate the various creative possibilities for initiatives that may contribute to the elimination of ethnicity pay gaps. Additionally, recommendations are not restricted to those focused on or within the workplace, and some recommendations have attempted to take on structural processes that contribute to the pay gap. 44 Common recommendations from the literature, proposed without specific policy measures alongside, often include reducing horizontal segregation and increasing within-industry mobility, working towards undoing ethnic and gender stereotypes in particular occupations, subsidised childcare for those with significant family or caring commitments and extended parental leave and addressing inequities in educational access and attainment, including skills training.319 6.2 Pay equity mechanisms in Aotearoa New Zealand 6.2.1 Pay equity legislation: Equal Pay Act 1972 The main pay equity legislation in Aotearoa New Zealand is the Equal Pay Act 1972, which makes it unlawful to refuse to offer the same pay, terms of employment, training, promotion on the basis of sex. Specifically, in terms of equal pay, section 2AAC states: An employer must ensure that— (a) there is no differentiation, on the basis of sex, between the rates of remuneration offered and afforded by the employer to employees of the employer who perform the same, or substantially similar, work; and (b) there is no differentiation, on the basis of sex, between the rates of remuneration offered and afforded by the employer for work that is exclusively or predominantly performed by female employees and the rate of remuneration that would be paid to male employees who— (i) have the same, or substantially similar, skills, responsibility, and experience; and 315 Chifley Research Centre, Closing the Gender Pay Gap, 24-25; Brown, Rickard, and Broughton, Tackling Gender, Disability and Ethnicity Pay Gaps, 42-47; Australian Government. Towards 2025: An Australian Government Strategy to Boost Women’s Workforce Participation. Australian Government, 2017, 15-16. https://womensworkforceparticipation.pmc.gov.au/. 316 Chifley Research Centre, Closing the Gender Pay Gap, 30; Employment and Social Development Canada, Employment Equity Act, 50. 317 Employment and Social Development Canada, Employment Equity Act, 53. 318 Brown, Rickard, and Broughton, Tackling Gender, Disability and Ethnicity Pay Gaps, 44. 319 Reducing horizontal segregation and increasing within-industry mobility: Chifley Research Centre, Closing the Gender Pay Gap, 21-25; Brown, Rickard, and Broughton, Tackling Gender, Disability and Ethnicity Pay Gaps, 41; Longhi and Brynin, The Ethnicity Pay Gap, 21, 24. Undoing ethnic and gender stereotypes in particular occupations: Chifley Research Centre, Closing the Gender Pay Gap, 26; Brown, Rickard, and Broughton, Tackling Gender, Disability and Ethnicity Pay Gaps, 46-47; Longhi and Brynin, The Ethnicity Pay Gap, 19. Subsidised childcare or extended parental leave: Equality and Human Rights Commission, Fair Opportunities for All, 19; Chifley Research Centre, Closing the Gender Pay Gap, 26-28; Australian Government, Towards 2025, 13. Inequities in education and skills training: Equality and Human Rights Commission, Fair Opportunities for All, 9, 12; Longhi and Brynin, The Ethnicity Pay Gap, 69; Australian Government, Towards 2025, 18.