The PSA has fought for equal pay and pay equity (equal pay for work of equal value) for as long as this organisation has existed. We have had life-changing victories and devastating setbacks. PSA Policy Advisor Grace Millar takes us through the key moments across the years of the fight for pay equity.
In 1913, the year the PSA was formed, jobs had two pay rates – one rate if the job was done by a man and another lower rate if it was done by a woman. Pay discrimination was standard across both the public and private sector, but that doesn’t mean everyone agreed.
In 1914, the first PSA conference passed a remit - 'female employees of equal competence with male employees and doing similar work receive equal treatment as to pay and privileges’. Our commitment to ending pay discrimination began. Alice May Palmer, a public servant, was elected as the first woman on the PSA executive, and made the case for equal pay to the Public Service Commissioner.
The number of women members initially remained low within the PSA’s membership, and the PSA did not initially make much progress on equal pay. In the 1940s, the public service employed many more women, because of the war. In 1943, 100 women met in Wellington and formed the first PSA Women’s Committee. The Committee organised regular meetings, wrote articles about equal pay and surveyed 1,000 women members about their wages, conditions, and views.
The Wellington Women’s subcommittee saw an opportunity in 1944, when the Prime Minister agreed to consult on new wage scales in the public service. Mary Boyd led a research team which put together a substantial case for equal pay. The Public Service Commission then agreed to Equal Pay – in principle.
Ten years later, that principle was still not in practice. Another generation of women activists organised the first PSA Women’s Conference. George Bolt, the Chair of the Public Service Commission addressed the Conference, and was asked why he didn’t support equal pay. He replied “Why should we pay 10 shillings for an article we can get for 5 shillings?”, which enraged and motivated the women attending.
In 1956, activists had a test case. Jean Parker worked for the IRD in Dunedin and applied for promotion – but a man with less responsibility and seniority was chosen ahead of her. She appealed and won, but on 29 August the Public Service Commission responded by taking away her responsibility and paying her less. That evening PSA members met in Dunedin, and expressed their outrage. Women’s organisations across the country sent telegrams of protest to the Prime Minister. On 4 September, the PSA Women’s subcommittee organised a lunch time protest meeting and 400 members attended. On 5 September, Jean Parker’s pay and responsibility was reinstated, although resolving the question of her appeal was delayed. The campaign for Jean Parker showed politicians the widespread support for Equal Pay. In the parliamentary debate over the case, Labour argued more forcefully for equal pay than they had previously. Both Labour and National parties went into the 1957 election with manifestos that committed to the principle of equal pay, although only Labour committed to its implementation.
A new Labour government led by Walter Nash was elected in 1957. Women in the PSA kept campaigning, and there were commitments from the government, but no legislation. Walter Nash left the country, and Jack Turnbull, the general secretary of the PSA, talked to the deputy Prime Minister, Jerry Skinner, and the drafting office, to make sure legislation was produced while Nash was away. This tactic worked and just before the 1960 election, legislation passed to increase women’s pay to male rates in three steps. In 1962, women in the public service had equal pay, 48 years after PSA had first passed a resolution supporting it.
Once the PSA had won equal pay for our members in the public service, the PSA did not stop, and concentrated on supporting the Council for Equal Pay and Opportunity fighting for equal pay for all. PSA leaders knew that equal pay for women in the public service would be at risk if women in the private sector still faced pay discrimination.
The push for equal pay in the private sector took another twelve years. In 1972, the Equal Pay Act was passed and the rates of pay for women were increased to the male rates over five years. The Employers’ Federation labelled the Equal Pay Act radical and impractical. But in 1977, finally, it was no longer legal to pay lower rates for women when they were doing the same job as men.
This was a major step forward, but there was much work still to do. In supermarkets, meat packing was done by women – so there was no male rate to raise up to. The Wellington Shop Employees’ Union fought in 1973 and 1974, including short-term strikes, to guarantee these women were paid what became known as a ‘notional male rate’ – or what supermarkets would pay meat packers if the work was done by men. This was a major step forward for pay equity – not just ensuring that women and men were paid the same for same roles, but addressing the fact that roles done by women were undervalued compared to roles done by men.
This was particularly challenging in industries dominated by women. It was possible to compare meat packers with similar roles by men, but in education there weren’t really roles dominated by men to compare with. The Clerical Workers Union took a court case to argue that their members were paid a ‘depressed male rate’, but lost. It seemed like the limits of the Equal Pay Act had been reached. Unions continued organising for equal pay for work of equal value. In 1990, the Labour government passed the Employment Equity Act, just before the election. The PSA began preparing pay equity claims for its members. The first claim was for female dominated Hearing and Vision Technicians. The PSA planned to compare them with male dominated Animal Health Inspectors – who did similar testing on animals that Hearing and Vision Technicians did on people – and were paid almost 40% more.
Then Jim Bolger’s National Government was elected, and one of their first acts was repealing the Employment Equity Act – cutting off these claims before they could be made – Hearing and Vision Techs continued to be paid 40% less than similar jobs in male dominated professions. This was the first of many attacks on unions by that government, which led to the de-unionisation of Clerical Workers, whose union had fought hard for equal pay.
Unions kept organising around pay equity, because work dominated by women continued to be paid less than men. In 2012, unions took a new case under the Equal Pay Act, and argued that care and support workers were paid at lower rates because the work was dominated by women and this broke the law. This was a massive step forward for women workers, finally providing a path for undervaluation to be addressed in the courts.
In 2020, the Labour government amended the Equal Pay Act to provide a process for union and employers to negotiate settlements. Since then, the PSA has advanced claims for many of its members. We’ve won significant pay rises for social workers, allied health workers, and hospital admin workers.
In May 2025, the coalition Government’s repeal of the Equal Pay Act with a new law cut across hard won rights for women workers. This is the third time a new National government has attacked provisions designed to ensure women’s work is valued at the same level as men’s work – the Bolger government repealing the Employment Equity Act in 1990, and the Key government disestablishing the Pay and Employment Equity Unit when it came to power in 2008.
The changes are outrageous and heartbreaking, but if the history of the last 112 years shows us anything, it’s that ensuring women’s work is valued is a long struggle and we cannot give up. Alice May Palmer started advocating for equal pay in 1913 and still faced discrimination when she retired in 1940. After the Public Service Commission agreed to equal pay in principle, it took 18 years before it stopped paying lower rates to women workers.
PSA members have fought for pay equity for as long as this organisation has existed. We have had life-changing victories and devastating setbacks. We have come as far as we have because of a long chain of workers who attended meetings, signed petitions, organised in their workplace, talked about their experiences, took industrial action, and challenged the political and legal framework that undervalued their work. We are part of that chain and will do everything we can to continue that work.
The Ministry of Culture and Heritage online sources were a major source for this article. The Ministry of Culture and Heritage has proposed making the workers who built and maintain these resources redundant.
