Gender and ethnic equity in Aotearoa New Zealand’s public service: where is the progress amid the pandemic?

While Aotearoa New Zealand’s (NZ’s) government has sought to encourage diversity in public service agencies via recent regulatory and policy drives, workplace developments have been disrupted by Covid-19. This study draws on a typology of equality approaches to appraise the ‘ambition’ of equity progress in NZ public service agencies in the pandemic context, based on a thematic content analysis of semi-structured interviews with sector experts, agency staff and managers. Various equity indices indicate that work-related inequities remain more pronounced for Māori and Pasifika women. Furthermore, public service agencies have generally emphasised ‘shorter’ equality goals in practice, but organisational responses to the pandemic have had nuanced effects on these and more ambitious equity pursuits. However, many sector stakeholders perceive that ‘longer’, diversity-cognisant equity thinking and measures, supported via multi-lateral efforts, are needed to encourage substantive equity progress for all. Implications of the study’s findings are considered in terms of how conventional equity conceptualisations need to be extended and put into practice to reflect processual, cultural, and intersectional dynamics. They will resonate in other countries facing increasing workforce and population diversification.

Pandemic or Not, Worker Subjective Wellbeing Pivots About the Living Wage Point: A Replication, Extension, and Policy Challenge in Aotearoa New Zealand.

Recent pre-pandemic research suggests that living wages can be pivotal for enhancing employee attitudes and subjective wellbeing. This article explores whether or not the present COVID-19 pandemic is impacting pivotal links between living wages and employee attitudes and subjective wellbeing, with replication indicating robustness. Twin cohorts each of 1,000 low-waged workers across New Zealand (NZ), one pre- (2018), and one present-pandemic (2020) were sample surveyed on hourly wage, job attitudes, and subjective wellbeing as linked to changes in the world of work associated with the pandemic (e.g., job security, stress, anxiety, depression, and holistic wellbeing). Using locally estimated scatter-point smoothing, job attitudes and subjective wellbeing scores tended to pivot upward at the living wage level in NZ. These findings replicate earlier findings and extend these into considering subjective wellbeing in the context of a crisis for employee livelihoods and lives more generally. Convergence across multiple measures, constructs, and contexts, suggests the positive impacts of living wages are durable. We draw inspiration from systems dynamics to argue that the present government policy of raising legal minimum wages (as NZ has done) may not protect subjective wellbeing until wages cross the living wage Rubicon. Future research should address this challenge.

Gender and ethnic equity in Aotearoa New Zealand's public service before and since Covid-19: Toward intersectional inclusion?

Abstract Since its bi-cultural foundation with Te Tiriti o Waitangi (the Treaty of Waitangi, signed in 1840 by M?ori, the indigenous Polynesian people of Aotearoa New Zealand (NZ), chiefs and representatives of the British Crown), cultural identities have expanded through immigration. While Aotearoa NZ's government seeks to encourage workplace diversity in public service agencies, developments are being disrupted by Covid-19. Using a typology of equality approaches, this study appraises the ?ambition? of equity progress in Aotearoa NZ public service agencies based on content analysis of interviews with sector experts, agency staff and managers. In terms of equity discourses, workplace inequities emerge as more pronounced for M?ori and Pasifika (the indigenous peoples of the Pacific), indicating that more ?ambitious? equality initiatives, including those which aim for intersectional inclusion, are needed. The study thereby contributes a more nuanced understanding of equity approaches that could meaningfully inform workplace initiatives designed to recognize, value and empower gender diversity. Its relevance for Aotearoa NZ, which has one of the most diverse working-age populations in the world, is likely to resonate in other countries where workforce diversity is yet to translate into equitable engagement in and experiences of work organizations by all.