The message is loud and clear: the Government must introduce mandatory pay gap reporting
Thirteen businesses have taken up the call of the Green Party, unions, and community groups who have long been telling the Government to take action to address the gender pay gap.
"When you have businesses, unions, community groups and the Human Rights Commission all calling for mandatory pay gap reporting, the only option the Government has is to act," says Jan Logie.
"For decades, government-after-government have made the rules that allow organisations to avoid equal pay for equal work. As a result, incomes in Aotearoa are severely out of balance.
"Pasifika women earn on average around 75% of what Pākeha men get paid. For every dollar a Pākeha man earns, a Pākeha woman earns 89 cents.
"But when the organisations who have been getting away with this are the ones calling for change, you know the Government is out of step.
"Tens of thousands of women, Māori and Pasifika right across Aotearoa have less money for food, less money to pay the bills, and less money for their families.
"There is nothing about this that is acceptable.
"It is time for the Government to listen and change the law to introduce comprehensive pay gap reporting.
"With a Green Party Minister for Women in the last term of Government, we got work started.
"Our then Minister for Women, and the Labour Minister for Workplace Relations, wrote to the Council of Trade Unions and Business New Zealand confirming that the Government would progress work on pay transparency.
"But since 2020, very little has happened.
"For years, the Green Party has been pushing Labour and previous governments to take action.
"Now business, unions, and community groups all want the same action. There are no excuses now, Minister. Time to step up," Jan Logie says.
