Greens put a $4.5b price on first pay equity fix

The Green Party would bring back the pay equity system and set aside just under $4.5 billion over four years for 65,000 care and support workers.

That figure would cover the first settlement only. The final amount would be negotiated with the workers and their unions. The party has not said what it has budgeted to restore the wider scheme, according to RNZ.

The promise means repealing the Government's pay equity law if the Greens are elected. That law halted 33 claims that were already in train. It also made it harder to prove work was undervalued because of its history as women's work. In effect, it lifted the bar for making a claim.

The Greens said the coalition "butchered" pay equity. Most care and support workers are women, according to the NZ Herald. The party also said it was open to improving the system, not simply going back to the old rules.

Labour is promising much the same. Leader Chris Hipkins says he would reverse the changes in the first 100 days if elected, with care and support workers first for a settlement, according to 1News. That group is expected to account for more than a third of the total pay equity bill. Like the Greens, Labour has not said what a restored scheme would cost, as reported by Stuff.

The Greens are the first of the two to put a four-year figure on any part of the reversal. Labour has not done so.

The broader context here is what that $4.5 billion figure settles and what it leaves open. It gives MPs and the public a starting point for Budget debate and any coalition talks. It does not lock in the final cost, which would depend on bargaining and on how the restored process values the work.

The wider picture here is the rest of the liability. The Greens have costed care and support workers only, not the other stopped claims or future claims under a lower bar. Labour has costed neither. That leaves the biggest fiscal question open: what a return to the old bar, plus any changes, would add to Crown costs.

In my view, the order both parties have chosen is telling. Putting care and support workers first focuses on the largest workforce affected, and the claim that was furthest ahead before the law changed. Repealing the law would restore the right to claim. It would not settle 33 claims on its own. Each would still have to go through the process Parliament agrees, with staff for bargaining, timeframes and back pay still to be sorted.