We asked several universities around New Zealand how many men and women are in their three highest pay bands.
Here’s what we found.
Otago University did the worst of the lot. 59% of their 7,920 employees were female or gender diverse. However, out of their eight most highly paid staff (whose salaries range from $229,249 to $330,063), only one is female. 12.5% — that’s not great. However, the university did point out that their Vice-Chancellor, who is female, is not included in this data.
Victoria University, in comparison, came out with pretty balanced gender pay ratios. We have one male employee in the $550,000 to $559,999 pay band (cough *Grant* cough), one female and one male employee in the $302,000 to $413,000 pay band, and four female and four male employees in the $229,000 to $317,000 pay band. Out of the 2559 people employed by the University, 56% are female.
Auckland University of Technology (AUT) has 60% female or gender diverse employees. However, only 25 women are employed in the highest pay band ($134,144 to $173,600), compared to 32 men (44% female). This trend continues in the next pay band ($122,309 to $142,035): 28 women and 43 men (39% female). The third highest pay band ($92,734 to $122,096) sees a higher number of female employees than male: 165 women and 149 men (53% female). This is the only instance within the information obtained where there are more women employed than men in one of a universities’ top three pay bands. AUT has 1207 female, 820 male, and nine gender diverse employees on permanent contracts.
The University of Auckland declined comment, stating that “the university does not use pay bands”, which is a bit of a fob off if you ask me. What they did tell us was that 58% of UoA’s 10,981 staff are female. Auckland Uni also has four times as many staff as Victoria.
Out of the eight Vice-Chancellors of universities in New Zealand, only two are female: Jan Thomas of Massey and Harlene Hayne of Otago.
The gender pay gap continues to exist in the very breeding grounds of progress and democracy. In her research report, Empirical evidence of the gender pay gap in New Zealand, Professor Gail Pacheco suggests these gaps are driven by hard-to-measure factors, such as conscious and subconscious bias, or a willingness to negotiate a salary.
Movements, such as the government’s promise to ensure that half of all directors on state sector boards and committees are women by 2021, hope to set a new standard for gender equality and representation.