Income based on gender
Pay-gap
The pay gap is calculated as:
Male pay - Female pay
----------------------------------- x 100 = Pay gap
Male pay
If men and women were paid equally, the result would be 0. If males received twice as much as females, the resulting pay gap would be 50. (50%)
Statistics gathered through the New Zealand Income Survey tell us that the pay gap between men and women has fluctuated over the years, but has ultimately fallen since the 1990s. However, it is still a thing that exists. In 2015, the gap was 11.8%
Year Pay gap
2015 - 11.8%
2014 - 9.9%
2013 - 11.2%
2012 - 9.1%
2011 - 10.3%
2010 - 10.8%
2009 - 11.5%
2008 - 12.5%
2007 - 11.9%
2006 - 12.1%
2005 - 14.0%
The site lists reasons why the pay gap exists, including occupational and vertical segregation. Female dominated occupations tend to be lower paid than male-dominated, and a higher proportion of males are in senior positions that pay more.
The values that society places on gender roles influences the differences in the workplace, as women are typically seen as the people who stay at home for children, and to ‘keep’ the house, while the men earn the bulk (if not all) of the money.
Unconscious and conscious bias is also a factor when men and women are up for a promotion at their workplace.
The median wage for men is almost $8,000 more than it is for women. For every dollar men aged between 25 and 64 made last year, women - who make up 51 per cent of the population - made just under 86c.
That figure rose above 89c in 2014 but dropped back in 2015.
Housing crisis
In 2015 the national government opted to sell off 1000 – 2000 state houses and offered more income related subsidies, so that families could afford to rent privately, however this boosted competition within the private rental market, affecting all renters and only benefitting private developers and property investors.
The New Zealand housing crisis has been given a lot attention in the media in recent months and clearly proves inequality in New Zealand. When comparing house prices to income New Zealand is now the most expensive country in the world to buy a home. An average Auckland home costs 10 times the median yearly income in New Zealand, because of this New Zealand's mortgage debt has doubled in the last decade. For middle income couples their mortgage is likely to be at least half their income, therefore it is nearly impossible for a single person, or a lower income couple to buy a house, instead the percentage of investment properties is steadily growing, currently 44% of house buyers are investors, how is this equality?
Gay, bisexual, transgender, non-binary, intersex (etc) people || sexuality and gender identity
Although we may have marriage equality, that doesn’t mean that members of the LGBTQ+ community are treated equally in every way.
Gay and bisexual men are still banned from donating blood. There are still many homophobic and transphobic people in our society, both in New Zealand and in worldwide media which is extremely influential, and effects LGBTQ+ people’s daily lives.
Transgender people are one of the most discriminated against groups in New Zealand, especially when this intersects with race and gender. The Human Rights Commission Inquiry into Discrimination Experienced by Transgender People in 2006 found that transgender people face discrimination and harassment in many areas of public life, including employment and shared accommodation. Trans people are placed in the wrong prisons if they haven’t changed their birth certificates (an expensive and lengthy process), where they are highly vulnerable to sexual assault and violence, especially trans women in men’s prisons. New Zealand law also allows unnecessary and non-consensual ‘normalising’ surgeries on intersex infants, which can severely affect their adult life.
Some expanded info:
MSM can’t donate blood until one year after having sex with another man. This is discriminatory towards gay/bi men and creates stigma towards the group. There should be individual risk assessments rather than a blanket ban on gay/bi men from donating blood.
Although it’s possible to change gender markers on official documents, this is expensive and requires a lot of paperwork. Changing your birth certificate requires going to court, which is also expensive and requires a medical standard of permanent physical change – generally meaning surgery that’s extremely inaccessible in New Zealand, and not desired by all trans people.
Intersex (an umbrella term that covers a variety of types of sexual anatomy or chromosomes that aren’t the standard male or female) babies are often subject to genital surgeries to make them look ‘normal’ aka like what common male or female genitals look like. This can have both an impact on their health, and also being forced into a gender binary as a child that does not match someone’s gender can be extremely damaging.
The Living/Minimum wage
The Living Wage is calculated to allow a working family of two adults and two children to be able to pay basic household bills, provide healthy food and pay for children’s school trips. It is based on expenditure items for a modest weekly budget. Currently, the Living Wage is calculated at $19.80, which is 68% of the average hourly earnings in New Zealand, $29.01, for the same quarter. However, the minimum wage sits at $14.75. The difference in these numbers shows that many full time employees are still not earning enough to reliably live off.
This being the case, work is no longer a guaranteed way out of poverty, since parents working full‐time in Auckland may not earn enough to meet basic family living costs. This not only impacts the parents, but can have a dramatically negative effect on the children that can be permanent, regardless of their change in economic status later in life. For example, the Dunedin Longitudinal Study that has followed a group of babies born in 1972/73 has found that children disadvantaged in pre‐school years had poorer health as adults.
How can we be equal when the low minimum wage allows people to be stuck in poor economic situations, and leaves their children permanently disadvantaged?
Inequality in New Zealand Education
It is argued that the children of families in poverty in New Zealand are disadvantaged in schools because of the level and nature of their family resources. Such resources can be both material and cultural: ill health, poor nutrition, overcrowding and transience, fewer curriculum relevant experiences, limited literacy and little early childhood education all reduce the ability of children to progress at school.
schools serving poorer areas are under-resourced. This applies more to places such as the USA, where school funding depends on the tax-base of local districts (Kozol, 1991), than to New Zealand, where schools are funded nationally and extra funding is provided for low socio-economic “low-decile” schools. Nevertheless underfunding, or the method of funding, of low-decile schools remains an issue in New Zealand, both because of relatively low parent and community contributions in such schools, and because of the sheer scale of their students’ needs.
poor teaching and ineffective schools are the problem, rather than poverty. Yet quality teaching and school improvement cannot be divorced from the social context. Low socio-economic schools often find it difficult to recruit permanent, long-term teaching staff.
Thrupp, M. (2008). Some inconvenient truths about education in Aotearoa-New Zealand. In S. St John & D. Wynd (Eds.), Left Behind: How Social & Income Inequalities Damage New Zealand Children (pp. 109-119). Auckland, New Zealand: Child Poverty Action Group.
This inequity can be illustrated with examples of schools within a region - see Amy Jackman's Schools rely on $1b donations during 15 years of 'free' education system. In this she contrasts "Wellington Girls' College ($542,000) and Wellington College ($502,000)" with fellow Wellington school Wainuiomata High, which "received $13,500 in 2014 - or about $18 a student."
An example of income inequality
For younger kiwis, the New Zealand they grew up in is remarkably different to how the older generations lived. One of the biggest differences is in the degree of income inequality. Over the last 3 decades in New Zealand, there has been a step change in equality, we have gone from being one of the most equal countries to one of the most unequal countries of the developed world.
Income increased very rapidly in the late 1980’s and 90’s - faster than any other wealthy country. Over these decades a big gap between rich and poor has opened up. Over the decades we have seen the top incomes double, the bottom half of incomes has barely changed. In 1980, someone near the top earned 2.4 times what someone near the bottom did, after factoring in housing costs. Now, they earn 2.97 times more. According to the current trend, there is no sign that this is going to be reversed any time soon.
In December last year, the second annual Child Poverty Monitor showed a slight decrease in the number of Kiwi children living in income poverty, from 27 per cent to 24 per cent. But 30 years ago, it was 14 per cent. A United Nations report in October last year showed New Zealand's child poverty rates had fallen by less than half a percent since 2008. By contrast, Australia reduced its child poverty rate by more than 6 per cent over the same period, and Finland and Norway, countries with similar populations, reduced theirs by more than 4 per cent and 3 per cent respectively.
Racial Inequality
All three articles of the Treaty of Waitangi address the recognition of equal rights for people living in New Zealand and the responsibility of the crown to fulfill or uphold these rights. The most relevant right discussed in the Treaty of Waitangi when assessing racial inequality within New Zealand would be “the rights and responsibilities of equality and common citizenship for all.”
Although here has been steps towards achieving “equality and common citizenship for all,” with the formation of the Waitangi Tribunal. Tasked with the responsibility of ensuring the promises of the treaty of Waitangi are upheld. These promises of equal rights for Maori within New Zealand remain unfulfilled today. This is shown by statistics New Zealand surveys which state that one in ten people in New Zealand aged 15 years or over reported experiencing discrimination based on their skin colour, race, nationality or ethnicity; in the last 12 months. This equates to an estimated 343,000 New Zealanders roughly 10% of the population.
http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/ethnic-inequalities
Cole, Mike, ed. Education, equality and human rights: issues of gender,'race', sexuality, disability and social class. Routledge, 2011.
While New Zealand styles itself as an equal society the reality is a different matter entirely. There are constant imbalances, some of the largest being in gender, housing, income and education.
Though the pay gap between men and women has ultimately fallen since the 1990’s, it’s still a thing that exists. In 2015, the pay gap was 11.8%. Female occupations tend to have lower pay than male occupations and there is a higher amount of males in senior positions, which earn more. For every $1 that men make in New Zealand, women only make 86c.
New Zealand is the most expensive country to buy a home. An average Auckland home costs 10 times the median yearly income in New Zealand. For middle income couples, their mortgage is likely to be at least half of their income, therefore it is nearly impossible for a single person or a lower income couple to buy a house.
Currently the living wage in New Zealand is $19.80, while the minimum wage is $14.75. The difference of there numbers shows that many full time employees are not earning enough to live off. This being the case, work is no longer a guaranteed way out of lovely, since parents working full time in Auckland may not earn enough to meet basic family living costs. How can we be equal when low minimum wage allows people to be stuck in poor economic situations and leaves the children permanently disadvantaged?
Underfunding of low- decile schools is an issue in New Zealand. Because of this, their students have less opportunity than the students of higher decile schools. Poor teaching and ineffective schools are the problem rather than poverty. Low socio-economic schools often find it hard to recruit permanent, long term teaching staff.
ABOUT EMPLOYMENT
"Many female workers in New Zealand work in occupations that are more than 80% female and these female-dominated occupations tend to be lower paid. Women are under-represented in higher-level jobs."
ABOUT WEALTH
from: http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/307458/10-percent-richest-kiwis-own-60-percent-of-nz's-wealth10%
Richest Kiwis own 60% of NZ's wealth
The richest 10 percent of households held half of New Zealand's wealth, while the poorest 40 percent held just 3 percent of total wealth.
ABOUT HOUSING
From: statistic New Zealand
For the year ended June 2015:
The median total net worth of New Zealand households was $289,000.
Household wealth in New Zealand was concentrated in the top 20 percent of New Zealand households, which held about 70 percent of total household net worth.
Owner-occupied dwellings, and investments in shares and other equity, each accounted for about 30 percent of a household’s total assets.
The individual net worth of New Zealanders increased with age. Young people (15–24 years) had the lowest median individual net worth ($1,000) and older people (65+) had the highest ($288,000).
The European population had a higher net worth than other ethnic groups ($114,000). This compared with $23,000 for people of Māori ethnicity, $12,000 for Pacific people, and $33,000 for the Asian ethnic group.
ABOUT INEQUALITY OF INCOME
ABOUT EQUALITY ITSELF(DEFINITATION)
A research from Victoria university
(Indicators of Inequality for Maori and Pacific people
Lisa Marriott and Dalice Sim
Working paper 09/2014 August 2014
Of the 21 indicators assessed in this study, eight (38 per cent) show improvements in the form of a decreasing gap between European and Māori, although not all of these improvements are significant. Less positive results are visible in 12 indicators (57 per cent), which produce increasing gaps between European and Māori. One indicator is largely unchanged. Not all indicators are available for Pacific people, but of the indicators measured, five (29 per cent) showed an improvement in the form of closing gaps between the European population and Pacific people. Again not all of the decreases in gaps are significant. Worsening differences were found in 11 (65 per cent) of the indicators measuring inequality between the European population and Pacific people. Similarly to the Māori population, one indicator remained unchanged.
New zealand is unequal. We are all faced with social and economic differences, whether it be race related or financial.
-Gender
There are still many homophobic and transphobic people in our society, both in New Zealand and in worldwide media which is extremely influential, and effects LGBTQ+ people’s daily lives.
-income
Over the last 3 decades in New Zealand, there has been a step change in equality, we have gone from being one of the most equal countries to one of the most unequal countries of the developed world, as poverty steadily increases.
-housing
When comparing house prices to income New Zealand is now the most expensive country in the world to buy a home.
-race
Although there has been steps towards achieving “equality and common citizenship for all,” with the formation of the Waitangi Tribunal. Tasked with the responsibility of ensuring the promises of the treaty of Waitangi are upheld.
