4 Understanding the Pacific Pay Gap 4.1 The Pacific Pay Gap: a snapshot There is a significant ethnic and gender pay gap in Aotearoa New Zealand. Pacific peoples, especially Pacific women, are the most impacted by this pay gap. In 2021, the gap between the median hourly earnings of Pacific men and Pākehā men was 18.8 percent. The gap was even larger for Pacific women compared with Pākehā men at 25.1 percent. Alongside Māori women, Pacific men and women experience the largest pay gaps compared to other ethnic groups.84 At the current rate of progress, it is estimated that it will take Pacific women 120 years and Pacific men 100 years to reach pay equity with Pākehā men.85 Therefore, there is a significant need for this data to be collected to understand how the pay gap impacts Pacific peoples along these important intersections.86 A report published by Treasury in 2018 found that educational level and occupation contributed to explaining pay gaps between Pacific peoples and Europeans.87 This was further explored by Cochrane and Pacheco who found the gap between average (and median) hourly wages for the European workforce, relative to Pacific, was substantial.88 To understand drivers of ethnic pay gaps, the authors controlled for individual and job-related characteristics. For Pacific peoples, they found that job-related characteristics only explained just under half of the pay gap compared to Europeans. Educational attainment was also a significant contribution to explaining the ethnic pay gap, especially between Pacific and European women. 18 Additionally, they found that Pacific peoples were disproportionately located in Auckland where wages are higher. The authors noted that, if the Pacific population were more dispersed across the country, the ethnic gap between Pacific peoples and Europeans would increase. Cochrane and Pacheco found that 73 percent of the pay gap for Pacific males and 61 percent of the pay gap for Pacific females could not be explained even after accounting for differences in job-related characteristics and educational attainment, among several other observed factors. This unexplained portion was likely to be attributable to a range of reasons including unconscious bias and discrimination as well as potentially missing data and differences in preferences in the non-wage components of the job. Further, it is worth noting that discrimination (both structural and interpersonal) and unconscious bias will also affect what is considered the ‘explained’ portion of pay gaps as well as the parts that are not explained. Recent case studies of the pay gap experienced by Pacific peoples in New Zealand have focused on universities and the public service.89 These studies provide further evidence that ethnic inequity experienced by Pacific peoples cannot be fully explained using traditional measures such as educational attainment, experience and job type. For the case of the New Zealand universities, McAllister et al. found that, even when research performance, research field and age are taken into account, Māori and Pacific women are underpaid at $0.85 to every 84 Household Labour Force Survey 2021. 85 New Zealand Human Rights Commission, Talanoa, 26. 86 To understand the importance of conducting research with an intersectional lens, see: Crenshaw, “Mapping the Margins, 1241-1299; Acker, Joan. “Gendered Organizations and Intersectionality: Problems and Possibilities.” Equality, Diversity and Inclusion: An International Journal (2012); Healy, Geraldine. “Reflections on Researching Inequalities and Intersectionality.” In Equality, Diversity and Inclusion at Work. A Research Companion, edited by Mustafa Özbilgin. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing Limited, 2009, 88-100. 87 New Zealand Treasury. Statistical Analysis of Ethnic Wage Gaps in New Zealand. Wellington: New Zealand Treasury, 2018. https://www.treasury.govt.nz/sites/default/files/2018-08/ap18-03.pdf. 88 Cochrane, Bill, and Gail Pacheco. Empirical Analysis of Pacific, Māori and Ethnic Pay Gaps in New Zealand. Auckland: New Zealand Work Research Institute, 2022. https://secureservercdn.net/45.40.152.202/76v.71b.myftpupload.com/wp-content/ uploads/2022/07/PPG-Inquiry-Empirical-analysis-of-Pacific-Maori-and-ethnic-pay-gaps-in-New-Zealand.pdf. 89 In universities: McAllister, Tara, et al. “Glass Ceilings in New Zealand Universities: Inequities in Māori and Pacific Promotions and Earnings.” MAI Journal: A New Zealand Journal of Indigenous Scholarship 9, no. 3 (2020): 276-280. In public services: Came, Heather, et al. “Ethnic Pay Disparities in Public Sector Leadership from 2001-2016 in Aotearoa New Zealand.” International Journal of Critical Indigenous Studies 13, no. 1 (2020): 76-77.