You have read the Screen Industry Gender Pay Gap Survey results.
Now watch the ShowNews interview with WIFT NZ Executive Director Patricia Watson about the survey results. Read the editorial (see below) and sign up for a free account to watch the video interview if you're not already a subscriber. You should be really fired up after that, and feel empowered to improve pay equity for women in our industry.
You can also listen to this bFM podcast where Frances Wright interviews Patricia about the Gender Pay Gap.
Fixing the Gender Pay Gap is in your hands and you can help.
Show News editorial on Gender Pay Gap
In WIFT’s surveys, much of the data comes from individuals and small companies. Given the size of the industry, this produces small sample sizes in certain data sets such as those around specific roles within the industry. None of this makes the responses that have produced WIFT’s data any less true, but it does mean that some of the data sets aren’t big enough to provide confidence that they’re an accurate representation.
WIFT acknowledges that in its reporting and only cites the larger data sets.
One can probably argue about the exact percentages by which women are paid less than men, both in the same roles and in comparable roles, but it’s clear there are significant pay gaps - and it’s clear in which departments that problem is worse than in others.
Solving a problem is a challenge without a clear understanding of what the problem is, how it has come to be, and what preserves the status quo. It’s the sort of uncomfortable conversation that the industry tends to avoid.
But the pay gap is a real problem. The industry can choose to do better.
And click here to read the article by Andre Chumko that Stuff ran about the gender pay gap in The Post in July, quoting Patricia.
Image: CHRIS MCKEEN/STUFF