The People's Select Committee report on pay equity
Last week, the People’s Select Committee on Pay Equity released its report on the Equal Pay Amendment Act 2025. Describing the process as “a flagrant and significant abuse of power,” the Committee outlined several areas where the pay equity legislation will be felt with implications for a range of sectors and populations.
Most of you are aware that these changes have hit our own sector particularly hard. Te Pai Ora SSPA outlined this in its submission as did many providers and peak bodies. The report is comprehensive with references to social services throughout.
Here are some key takeaways:
- Cancelled pay equity claims disproportionately impact Māori, Pacific workers, disabled people and gender minorities. Several submitters asserted that “the Act is a profound breach of Te Tiriti o Waitangi” (p73). It’s not a stretch to see how this has influenced the inequities that we see in reports like last week’s child poverty statistics.
- Underpayment results in higher turnover (something we have heard from across our sector) and this results in the work falling on someone else. As submitter Sarah Miller explained “I had a specialist say to me recently that they were needing to do social work because there weren't social workers, which isn't cost effective from an economic sense.” (p65)
- The settled social worker claim is seen as a significant win by the sector. Even the Government’s own Departmental Disclosure Document referred to research that shows “extensive support for the pay equity changes from both social workers and their employers.” The report calls this “a comprehensive rebuttal of the 2025 amendments.”
- However, the 10-year prohibition on claims and bar on reviews mean that inequalities are likely to emerge post-settlement. As we mentioned in our own submission, pay gaps are already re-emerging following the NGO social worker settlement. The Committee recommended reversing this. (p126)
- Even before the Act, our sector has been underfunded by government. The removal of pay equity has made this worse but so has “restructuring, re-prioritising, changes in reporting, pressures for reductions in services, changing terms of reference and contract lengths and terms and conditions.” According to the report, the government saw pay equity as “a political opportunistic football” that allowed it to avoid “confronting the over-riding issue of security and sufficiency of government funding in these sectors.” (p94)
During the event for the release of the report, member Jackie Blue said that now “the ball is in our court”. Te Pai Ora SSPA intends to build on the work that went into the report and ensure that pay equity becomes an election issue.
We will continue to amplify the voices of those who are calling for equal pay in our sector, raise our concerns in our engagements with politicians and incorporate pay equity into our learning and development offerings (like our Kai & Kōrero session with gender pay expert Jo Cribb to mark International Women’s Day).
