Addressing gender pay gap and gender pay equity in the Future of Work

Nowadays, to remain competitive businesses are pressured to embrace transformations. These changes are called the Future of Work (FOW), and focus on how work, the workplace, and work processes adapt to societal and economic challenges. However, even with the FOW, the issue of gender pay equity remains. Amidst the extensive literature aimed at addressing the global issue of gender pay gap, the lack of understanding of the potential impact of emerging trends and changes in the workplace environment, brought about by the FOW still exists. This is the research gap that this paper aims to address. This research aimed at identifying the factors impacting the prevailing gender pay equity issues in New Zealand organisations through the analysis of worker-related data while looking at factors that influence how organisations will adapt to the evolving work concepts in the FOW. By conducting a quantitative analysis of longitudinal employee data, the research identified the explainable and unexplainable portions of the pay gap, with the explainable portion highly attributable to worker-related characteristics. The general findings from the study showed that the worker-related characteristics are deemed as an avenue for introspection of Human Resource policies and practices to uncover systemic biases and allow for more bespoke initiatives towards achieving pay equity. Furthermore, this study showed the double-edged sword of the FOW as it can act as a catalyst for addressing pay inequities but can also be the reason for the widening pay differences. Lastly, this study proved the benefits of the comprehensive gender pay gap and gender pay equity reporting by NZ organisations as it allows for more targeted review of policies and processes that will help mitigate the gender pay disparity.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Applied Management

Level thesis:degree_level

Masters

Grantor

Otago Polytechnic | Te Pūkenga

Year dc:date.issued

2024

Author dc:creator

• Mendoza, Genevie

• gender pay gap
• gender pay equity
• Future of Work
• pay disparity
• Fourth Industrial Revolution
• Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DE&I)

Statement dc:rights

• CC BY-NC-ND Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 International

Language dc:language.iso

en

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/10652/6505

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:researchbank.ac.nz:10652/6505