Abstract
The Equal Pay Act (EPA) was introduced in 1972, promising the removal of sex-based discrimination in rates of pay for women in paid employment. Despite almost 50 years of this legislation, women in Aotearoa still earn an average of 91 cents to every dollar earned by men.
In an attempt to remedy the Act’s failure to close the gender pay gap, the EPA was amended late last year to implement a new bargaining-focussed framework for raising and settling pay equity claims. While this new process could perhaps be an improvement on the previous court-based complaints system, it is still unlikely to create any real economic advancement for women. This latest reform will likely continue to minimally impact the lives of women in Aotearoa.
This dissertation will argue that the amendments made to the EPA will be unable to eliminate the gender pay gap. The inefficacy of the Equal Pay Amendment Act 2020 will be explored throughout the dissertation which will highlight both specific and broad shortfalls. Equal pay legislation in Aotearoa has failed to recognise the underlying causes that drive the unjustified, 'unexplained' economic disparity between men and women, such as deeply ingrained social attitudes and unconscious bias. Legislation has the power to address these issues but until such time as it does, the current mechanisms will continue to produce little positive effect.