23. On 18 April 2017, the Government announced a $2 billion pay equity settlement for 55,000 care and support workers in New Zealand’s aged and disability residential care, and home and community support services. The settlement followed a successful legal claim brought by a union arguing the pay that caregivers (who are predominantly female) received was less than what would have been paid to a male with the same skill set in a different occupation. 24. This settlement is historic and is an important step towards pay equity. However it does not extend to all sectors where female workers continue to be underpaid, such as education. In January 2018 the Government reconvened the Joint Working Group on Pay Equity Principles. The group will consider how to determine the merit of a claim as a pay equity claim and how to select appropriate male comparators. The Minister for Women stated, “Once we receive the recommendations we will work to develop pay equity legislation which we expect to introduce mid-2018.”23 Recommendation 4 a. Incorporate the principle of equal pay for equal value in legislation. b. Require State sector organisations, particularly State-Owned Enterprises and Mixed Ownership Model Companies, to publish annual gender and ethnic pay gaps and their plans to eliminate these gaps. c. Enact legislation that requires companies with more than 100 workers to publicly report on their gender pay and bonus gap annually. d. Enact fair and robust pay equity legislation that will allow women in low paid female dominated occupations to make claims against their employers. e. Fund specific research on the impact of conscious and unconscious bias on the gender pay gap, and identify and implement recommendations to address this issue. f. Provide the partner of a mother or nominated primary care giver with paid partner’s leave that is additional to and not shared with the mother or primary care giver’s parental leave entitlement. Women in leadership 21. New Zealand women are well represented in leadership positions in some areas but not in others. Three of New Zealand’s senior constitutional roles, the Prime Minister, the 23 Hon Julie Anne Genter (2018) Joint Working Group on Pay Equity Principles Reconvened Available: https://www.beehive.govt.nz/release/joint-working-group-pay-equity-principles-reconvened 8