Equal Pay for Aged Care Workers

Ninety two percent of aged care workers in NZ are women. Their pay rates range from $13.75 per hr (the minimum wage) to around $15 per hr. In a landmark decision for equal pay, the Employment Court ruled recently that wages were so low because the work was traditionally considered 'women's work'. Because of this, the court ruled that aged care workers were entitled to seek pay parity with jobs requiring the similar skills and experience in other sectors e.g. mental health and justice, which employ more men. Aged care in New Zealand is fully government funded, but the government has not agreed to make additional funding available to service providers to increase care workers wages. Instead the service providers are likely to appeal the Employment Court decision in the hope of having it tossed out. Even if they don't succeed the process could take years and in the meantime aged care workers will still have very low wages. We urge the government to give an assurance that they will fund the wage increases and tell service providers not to appeal the Employment Court decision.