Pay Equity Strategies: Notes from New Zealand and New South Wales

Drawing on material from Inquiries in New Zealand and New South Wales, this article evaluates strategies to narrow the gender pay gap. In the New Zealand case the focus is on the current process of planning and implementing the five-year Plan of Action that has been developed from the 2004 tripartite Taskforce report. An account of the New South Wales Inquiry and subsequent equal remuneration and work value cases provides a backdrop to the intricacies of negotiation, competing interests, and collaborative learning that mark the New Zealand arrangements. The article examines what these cases can tell us about achievements, constraints and future trends. It shows that government commitment, employer interest and infrastructural support are necessary elements of any pay equity strategy, and that these should be coupled with evaluation and accountability.