Families and working lives
The most significant influences on the working lives of families come from the operation of the labour market, and not from the actions of the Government, though government actions serve to modify those impacts.
The last two decades have been marked by significant shifts in work and employment. In recent times these have had three main causes: the changing economy (with growth in service industries, particularly “knowledge-intensive” industries); the changing workplace (with non-standard employment, particularly the growth of part-time work); and the changing workforce (with large numbers of older workers retiring and fewer younger workers joining the workforce).
Labour force participation of women has continued to increase over the last decade to just under 60 percent in December 2003. Over recent decades employment growth has been particularly strong for mothers with young children, although New Zealand’s non-employment rate for sole parents remains relatively high (for more detail, including childcare provision, see Families and working lives in Section 1 New Zealand Families Today). Women’s average hourly wages continue to move closer to men’s, though the gap remains at 87 percent of average full-time hourly pay rates in June 2003. Women remain concentrated in a limited range of industries and occupations and in the lower levels of organisational hierarchies.
The range of earnings grew quickly during the 1980s and has continued to rise at a slower pace in the 1990s, though we have no data that track individuals’ incomes over time. The rise in skill demand from employers appears to have outstripped supply, leading to rising differentials associated with skill levels and workforce experience.
Work/life balance (balancing paid work and unpaid work with responsibilities and leisure) has become a more visible issue. This has occurred as more women and sole parents have entered the labour force, more people work longer hours, around 81,000 people juggle more than one job, and non-standard working hours appear to be increasing157.
There has been relative stability in labour market and employment policies over the past decade, after the significant changes introduced by the State Services Act 1988 and the Employment Contracts Act 1991. Recent legislative reforms have generally continued to maintain the deregulated labour market established under the Employment Contracts Act 1991, with modifications to expand the role of unions in industrial bargaining introduced in the Employment Relations Act 2000. Recent years have also seen the raising of the minimum wage, expansion of holiday and safety provisions, and the introduction of paid parental leave.
Most of the legislation that directly sought to protect the interests of families has been in effect since the 1960s (equal pay legislation), 1970s (Human Rights Act) and 1980s (Parental Leave and Employment Act). The most significant changes in the last decade to employment provisions that affect families have been the increases in the subsidies for childcare, the introduction of subsidies for Out of School Care and Recreation (OSCAR) in 1999 and paid parental leave in 2002. In the first year of paid parental leave, 18,000 successfully applied, at a total cost of around $48.2 million. Extensions to paid parental leave have recently been announced (see Appendix 2, Families and working lives, for details).