Section 4 Equality and Diversity
This HRC report contains a short quantitative overview of Equality & Diversity in the Public Service. A separate Equality and Diversity report has also been produced. The 2010 Equality and Diversity report draws on current and historical HRC data, at both a Public Service wide and department level, and brings it together with qualitative information to provide a comprehensive picture of equality and diversity in the Public Service.
Ethnicity
The ethnic diversity of the Public Service is shown in Table 13. The representation of the Asian ethnic group in the Public Service continued to grow, although at a slightly slower rate than over the previous 5 years. Representation of Māori and Pacific People both increased slightly in 2010.
Table 13: Representation of ethnic groups13 in the Public Service, 2005 to 2010
|
|
2005 |
2006 |
2007 |
2008 |
2009 |
2010 |
|
Māori (%) |
17.5 |
16.7 |
16.8 |
16.7 |
16.2 |
16.4 |
|
Pacific People (%) |
7.3 |
7.4 |
7.6 |
7.8 |
7.4 |
7.6 |
|
Asian (%) |
5.4 |
5.9 |
6.5 |
6.9 |
7.2 |
7.4 |
|
Middle Eastern, Latin American, African (%) |
0.4 |
0.5 |
0.7 |
0.9 |
0.9 |
1.0 |
|
European (%) |
75.7 |
74.3 |
73.1 |
72.5 |
71.4 |
72.6 |
|
Other (%) |
1.2 |
3.5 |
3.5 |
3.4 |
4.3 |
4.0 |
Women in the Public Service
The proportion of women in the Public Service as at 30 June 2010 remained at 59 percent (compared with 47 percent in the employed labour force). The type of work in the Public Service may partly explain this high representation as many Public Service occupations such as 'social workers', 'case workers' and 'clerical and administration workers' have a high representation of women. The proportion of women in each Public Service department is shown in Appendix 2.
On average, women in the public service are younger than men. The average age of women was 42.9 years, whereas the average age of men was 44.9 years. A higher proportion of women (21.8 percent) were aged 25-34 years compared with men (18.3 percent).
Diversity in senior management
The proportion of women in senior management roles has increased significantly over the past 12 months after being static between 2006 and 2009. Over the year to 30 June 2010, the proportion of women in senior management increased by 2.0 percentage points to 39.8 percent (37.8 percent in 2009).
Table 14 shows the proportion of women, Māori, Pacific, and Asian in senior management roles (tier 1, 2, and 3). Figure 14 shows the proportion of women in senior management since 2005.
Table 14: Diversity in senior management, 2005 to 2010
|
|
2005 |
2006 |
2007 |
2008 |
2009 |
2010 |
Public Service |
|
Women |
35.6% |
37.7% |
37.8% |
38.4% |
37.8% |
39.8% |
58.7% |
|
Māori |
8.3% |
8.2% |
9.1% |
9.0% |
8% |
8.3% |
16.4% |
|
Pacific people |
1.7% |
1.7% |
1.7% |
1.3% |
1.5% |
1.5% |
7.6% |
|
Asian |
1.5% |
1.6% |
1.5% |
1.4% |
1.5% |
1.7% |
7.4% |
Figure 12 Women in senior management, 2005 to 2010
As at 30 June 2010, 27 percent of senior managers in the Public Service were aged over 55 years (19 percent in the Public Service) and the average age of senior managers was 50.1 years (43.8 years in Public Service).
Gender and ethnicity pay gaps
As at 30 June 2010, the average salary for men in the Public Service was $69,544 and $59,522 for women. Over the past 12 months the gender pay gap decreased by one percentage point (from 15.4% to 14.4%) representing the largest reduction in the pay gap over the past 5 years. Over the past year average salary for women increased by 2.0 percent compared with 0.8 percent for men. The gender pay gap in the Public Service for the years 2005 to 2010 is shown in Table 15.
Table 15: Gender pay gaps, 2005 to 2010
|
2005 |
2006 |
2007 |
2008 |
2009 |
2010 |
|
|
Female Salary (average) |
$47,103 |
$50,050 |
$52,550 |
$55,407 |
$58,363 |
$59,522 |
|
Male Salary (average) |
$56,349 |
$59,644 |
$62,538 |
$65,475 |
$68,983 |
$69,544 |
|
Gender Pay Gap (%) |
16.4% |
16.1% |
16.0% |
15.4% |
15.4% |
14.4% |
Figure 13 Average Salary by gender, 2005 to 2010
The gender pay gap within occupation groups is lower than the overall gender pay gap. Pay gaps for occupation groups range from 1.0 percent for Contact Centre Workers through to 13.6 percent for Managers. The reduction in the overall gender pay gap was driven by reductions in all but one occupation group. The exception was Managers, where the pay gap increased from 12.9 percent to 13.6 percent (see Table 16).
Table 16: Gender pay gaps, 2005 to 2010
|
HRC customised occupation groups |
2007 |
2008 |
2009 |
2010 |
|
Managers |
13.8% |
13.9% |
12.9% |
13.6% |
|
Policy Analysts |
12.1% |
10.2% |
10.4% |
10.1% |
|
Information Professionals |
8.4% |
8.8% |
8.8% |
8.5% |
|
Social, Health and Education Workers |
9.8% |
8.1% |
7.7% |
5.9% |
|
ICT Professionals and Technicians |
7.7% |
7.9% |
8.5% |
7.6% |
|
Legal, HR and Finance Professionals |
9.8% |
10.8% |
9.3% |
8.5% |
|
Inspectors and Regulatory Officers |
6.3% |
4.4% |
4.2% |
4.0% |
|
Contact Centre Workers |
1.8% |
1.7% |
1.7% |
1.0% |
|
Clerical and Administrative Workers |
4.9% |
4.1% |
11.1% |
6.4% |
|
Other Occupations |
21.7% |
19.0% |
16.1% |
11.9% |
Table 17 shows ethnic pay gaps in the Public Service. The pay gap between Māori and non-Māori remained at 11 percent. The pay gap between Pacific peoples and non-Pacific peoples decreased from 20 percent to 19 percent while pay gap between Asian peoples and non-Asian peoples increased to 11 percent.
Table 17: Ethnic pay gaps, 2005 to 2010
|
2005 |
2006 |
2007 |
2008 |
2009 |
2010 |
|
|
Māori (%) |
13% |
12% |
11% |
12% |
11% |
11% |
|
Pacific peoples (%) |
21% |
21% |
20% |
20% |
20% |
19% |
|
Asian peoples (%) |
10% |
9% |
10% |
10% |
10% |
11% |
Like the gender pay gap, ethnic pay gaps can be partially attributed to the occupation profile of a particular ethnic group. 73 percent of Māori work in the four lower paid occupation groups (social health and education workers, inspectors and regulatory officers, contact centre workers and clerical and administrative workers). The proportion of Asian public servants in these lower paid occupation groups is 64 percent (63 percent in 2009) and the proportion of Pacific peoples is even higher at 82 percent (83 percent in 2009).
13 Ethnicity is recorded and reported based on the Statistics New Zealand "Statistical Standard for Ethnicity 2005". People recording more than one ethnic group are counted multiple times. Percentages in Table 13 and Table 14 are of those with a known ethnicity.