More Gender Pay Gap Idealogical tinkering rather than actual biological solutions and why National’s outrage is faux parental concern
We’re lagging further behind on the gender pay gap – how much longer will we wait?
As a country, Aotearoa New Zealand is falling further behind the rest of the world in addressing pay gaps.
Many countries – Australia and the 33 that make up Europe – have recently announced advances on already established measures to close pay gaps. These include mandating action plans where pay gaps are more than 5% and lowering the threshold of the size of businesses that must measure and publicly report.
The Gender Pay Gap debate in NZ has always felt like a lot of white tertiary educated women at Boardroom level management pissed off they aren’t getting the same sweet deals the boys are getting.
Less Les Misérables and more Laissez-faire miserable.
Surely the harvest of civil society should be a wee bit broader than the Professional Female Management Class?
At the centre of the Gender Pay Gap is the biological reality women carry the babies. If we as a liberal progressive society want to ensure everyone has equal agency, then surely recognising biological reality is a starting point?
The first 12months should be maternity leave – or paternity leave, either one, but one of the parents should be paid to stay home with the infant for its first year of life. Who else do you want to look after an infant other than the parent?
Meanwhile, ECE should be nationalised and made completely free for 2 year olds to 5 year olds while all after school care should be free.
Childcare costs fall unevenly and unfairly on women, so why not eliminate those costs altogether?
Playing the Gender Pay Gap Game even when implemented, doesn’t lead to the outcomes desired.
If women having babies is stunting their pay careers, then subside the cost of having that kid with 12months maternity/paternity leave, Nationalise ECE and free after school care.
The promise of Democracy is you can look in your kids face and know they will have a netter deal of it than you.
Allowing a parent to stay home with their kid for a year, provide free early education care and free after school care would do more to live up to that promise than anything else.
That’s why Nicola Willis’s ‘outrage’ at Labour not bothering with her private members Bill on paid parental leave is such bullshit…
National says Labour ‘insulting parents’ by blocking change to paid parental leave
National deputy leader Nicola Willis says Labour has insulted parents and put politics above its principles, as it blocked her bill seeking to amend how paid parental leave entitlements can be used.
Every political party except Labour voted to support Willis’ shared parental leave amendment.
…tinkering with when you can take the current pathetic parental leave entitlements ignores the massive current problems, if Nicola wanted to make a real difference, she would lift parental leave to 12months, nationalise ECE and make after school care free, but to do that we would need to tax the rich and seeing as National are the political party of greedy wealth, she ain’t going to do that.
It’s easier to claim Labour hate families than actually do anything meaningful for families.
All we do is make ideological tinkerings rather than real biological solutions.
Increasingly having independent opinion in a mainstream media environment which mostly echo one another has become more important than ever, so if you value having an independent voice – please donate here.
If you can’t contribute but want to help, please always feel free to share our blogs on social media
Yes but, It was brilliant politics by Nicola. Stay at home dad’s and the professional female managerial class were impressed. & Noted only one party didn’t vote for it.
Agree that the biology of (binary) sex differences matter.
National didn’t want to increase the time of paid parental leave, just to enable splitting the existing amount between parents.
the problem currently is that low income women, especially single mothers, are the ones most likely to suffer the greatest amount of lowered income, and career set backs, as a result having babies. Middle and high income women also lose out by a much lesser amount than low income women, and less of a career set back.
And we should be talking about a (biological) sex pay gap. Currently stats NZ collects data on the gender pay gap based on individual’s gender self ID: eg how they self ID to their employers, regardless of whether or not they take opposite sex hormones and/or get genital modification surgery.
why should breeders get any special treatment over everyone else? if you want to have kids sort them out yourselves. Nanny state is correct. Maybe we should start giving them free baby formula and nappies too. Robot wet nurses and arse wipers will be next. The west is fucked.
How can we address the gender pay gap in New Zealand, while also recognizing the biological reality that women carry babies?