For thousands of care and support workers across Aotearoa, the pay equity debate is about much more than numbers on a spreadsheet — it is about whether demanding and essential work is properly recognised and valued.
Labour has proposed an immediate $4-an-hour pay increase for care and support workers from 1 January 2027, worth around $160 a week before tax for an average full-time worker. The party has also committed to restoring pay equity legislation within its first 100 days if elected. NZNO has welcomed the proposed increase as a first step but says a wage rise should not be confused with achieving full pay equity.
Care and support workers provide services across aged residential care, disability support, home and community support, and mental health and addiction services. The long-running pay equity claim involving around 65,000 workers was originally raised by NZNO, the PSA and E tū in 2022.
The unions say extensive work had already been undertaken examining the skills, responsibilities, effort and working conditions involved in care work, with the earlier process finding evidence of undervaluation in a workforce dominated by women.
But behind the legislation, negotiations and election promises are the workers themselves.
Care and support worker Lisa Marriner joined Waatea to talk about what the job actually involves, the pressures facing workers trying to make ends meet and what an additional $4 an hour could mean around the kitchen table.
Her perspective also puts the spotlight on a bigger question in the pay equity debate — not simply what care workers are paid, but how Aotearoa values the people responsible for looking after some of our most vulnerable whānau.
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