NZ: Fair pay for the same work in the health system – especially for women

The NZ Government has made the decision to increase wages for all health workers to parity – meaning whether you work in a hospital or aged care home, you will receive the same wage. 20,000 staff will receive approximately a 20% pay rise, costing the Government NZ$200M per year. If we compare this to Australia with five times the population, our equivalent extra cost to Government would be $1 billion. However, if we are to deliver the 25% increase to achieve parity with public health workers, our government will require $2.6B – a big ask at this point in time, but required if we do not want to lose the remaining IP that resides in the older staff in our aged care workforce. As the UTS report released this week into the aged care system says in its Executive Summary:

One particular concern is the high staff turnover rates, averaging 37.6% per annum in residential care and 41.9% per annum in home care.

The HSU aged care staff survey recently released indicates that up to 75% of staff are considering leaving the sector. Meanwhile, the 15% pay rise for frontline staff is only causing greater consideration of leaving for front- and back-office staff. The NZ Government has given the sector and the Australian Government a platform to argue that more cash must come into the system. Plan B and co-contribution remains the only viable medium-term solution.