Key facts11 • Pacific women and men have the biggest pay gaps when compared with Pākehā men, who are the highest earners. • Unemployment rates for Māori and Pacific peoples are at least twice that of the general population. • Underutilisation rates for Māori and Pacific peoples are over 20 percent • Number of Māori and Pacific peoples who were underemployed increased by 7,000 One of the barriers to pay equity and closing gender and ethnic pay gaps is the secrecy about pay in New Zealand’s workplaces. The gender pay gap remains unchanged at 9.3 percent9 since 2017. The lack of pay transparency has allowed women to be underpaid for 45 years since the passing of the Equal Pay Act 1972. The Commission launched an Ending Pay Secrecy campaign on International Women’s Day on 8 March 2019 calling on the Government to implement pay transparency so that companies with more than 100 employees are publicly reporting on their gender pay gap as a step to closing it. The campaign has a video of the EEO Commissioner speaking about her own experience of pay discrimination and includes an online petition asking members of the public to call on the Government to implement a pay transparency regime. The video has been viewed more than 25,000 times on Commission social media platforms. Unlike the gender pay gap, ethnic pay gaps have not improved over time. This means that Mäori, Pacific and ethnic minorities in lower income brackets are likely to remain there without urgent and effective intervention. This has an impact on households, children and communities associated with these low-income workers. The most recent findings of the Public Service Workforce Data10 show a pay gap of 21 percent on average between Pacific workers and Päkehä males in the public service. Public service ethnic pay gap trends indicate that Mäori, Pacific and Asian ethnicities are not only the lowest paid but are still under-represented in the top three tiers of public service management. The EEO Commissioner has advocated for urgent intervention to improve access to employment opportunities and improvements in the quality of life for Pacific, Mäori and Asian workers in the public service, and has contributed to a seminar of public sector CEOs on the issue. Good Employer Review The Commission conducted its annual review of the reporting of ‘goodemployer’ obligations by Crown entities. Crown entities continue to generally report good employer obligations well in their annual reports, however the Commission notes that 18 percent of Crown entities need to better demonstrate that they are meeting good-employer obligations. 9 Labour market statistics (income): June 2019 quarter https://tinyurl.com/wnwj8zz 10 State Service Commission (2018). Public Service Workforce Data. Retrieved from https://tinyurl.com/shayy6n 11 Labour market statistics June 2019 quarter https://tinyurl.com/y5c4jbhl 20 Human Rights Commission