Employment equity is about fairness in the workplace. An employee’s compensation, conditions, workplace experiences and access to jobs at all levels of their industry should not be affected by their gender, age, colour, disability, employment status, ethical belief, nationality, family status, marital status, political opinion, race, religious belief, sex or sexual orientation.
Employment Equity Policy Information
Employment equity policy concerns fairness at work, including how much people are paid.
It means people have the same opportunities to participate in employment regardless of their gender. This extends further to all prohibited grounds for dismissal as entrenched in NZ law. Equity breaches are most often taken to court as a personal grievance under the Employment Relations Act 2000, or a claim under the Human Rights Act 1993.
Pay equity means what you’re paid isn’t influenced by your gender and other non-discriminatory classes. Women receive the same pay as men for doing the same work. In addition to this, equal pay is received for doing different work that is still valued equally. This is assessed in terms of skills, knowledge, responsibility, effort and working conditions. Other factors include performance, market factors, and productivity.
Employment Equity Breaches: A Strategy.
Labour Employment Equity Law
There is an apparent trend of historical gender discrimination. Pre-1972’s Equal Pay Act, separating rates of pay for men and women was completely legal. Equal employment laws and anti-discrimination legislation have improved women’s job equity (access to jobs) and level of pay, however, multiple modern studies still report women’s earnings as less.
In female-dominated occupations, you can look at what would have been paid to a man, in addition to evaluating the existence and undervaluing of the role due to structural, current or historical discrimination.
