Pissed off about the gender pay gap in NZ? Sick of earning less than your male counterparts? Today marks a campaign that aims to pressure the Government to change this – AND you get to send an invoice!
If you’ve ever looked at your pay packet and thought “hang on… where the hell is the rest of it?”, a new campaign launching today has a bold solution: send the bill straight to the Prime Minister.
That’s exactly what STILL Minding the Gap is encouraging New Zealanders to do, with a campaign that invites people to literally invoice Christopher Luxon for the money women are losing every week due to the Government’s failure to mandate gender pay gap reporting.
Yes, an actual invoice.
From today, people can head to the STILL Minding the Gap website and generate an automatic invoice addressed directly to the Prime Minister. The tool calculates the weekly financial cost to women that campaigners say is the result of Government inaction on pay transparency and then neatly packages it up as a bill.
And the numbers behind it aren’t small.
New research from the campaign shows women across New Zealand are losing noticeable chunks of income every single week because the gender pay gap continues without mandatory reporting. Women earning the median wage are losing $25.36 per week. For wāhine Māori, that rises to $58.40 per week, and for Pacific women the figure jumps to $76.40 per week.
“These aren’t just statistics – they’re groceries, power bills, and school uniforms that women and their families are going without,” says Dr Jo Cribb, Project Leader at STILL Minding the Gap. “Every week the Government delays action, women are paying the price. It’s time to send the Prime Minister the bill for his inaction.”
If this all feels depressingly familiar, that’s because the gender pay gap has been hanging around in New Zealand for a long time, as we have reported extensively. At one point it hovered stubbornly around eight to nine percent for nearly a decade, meaning Kiwi women were effectively being paid for far fewer days of the year than men. One awareness campaign even dubbed November 30 “No Pay Day” – the point in the calendar when women had theoretically earned the same amount men made for the full year.
The STILL campaign points to international evidence showing that mandatory gender pay gap reporting for large businesses can reduce the gap by between 20 and 40 percent. Countries including the United Kingdom and Australia, along with all members of the European Union, have already rolled out these requirements as a way to drive progress toward pay equity.
“The Government knows the solution works. They’re simply choosing not to act,” Dr Jo continues. “This campaign puts a dollar figure on that choice and makes it personal.”
Campaign organisers say the issue feels particularly pressing right now, given the cost-of-living squeeze many households are already dealing with.
“At a time when families are struggling, it is unacceptable that preventable pay inequities continue unchecked,” Dr Jo tells.
The campaign is calling on the Government to introduce mandatory gender pay gap reporting for large employers. In the meantime, if you’re feeling like the Prime Minister might owe you a few dollars, the invoice generator is live now on the STILL Minding the Gap website.
