Our combined Kia Toipoto and Inclusion & Diversity Plan 2023/24

Our context#

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We have made significant progress with closing the gender pay gap at the Treasury (Te Tai Ōhanga), with the pay gap more than halving since 2018 (currently 8.7%, down from 20% in 2018).

Our ethnic pay gap has almost halved in the last year, and we have a negative mean pay gap for our Pacific and Māori employees.

The value Inclusion & Diversity brings#

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New Zealand is diverse and continues to become more so over time. Diversity is all around us; it has shaped economic trends and changed how organisations operate. The key to unlocking the economic and social benefits of diversity is through having organisational cultures of inclusion. A focus on inclusion will drive success in three key areas*:

Social License

Having a diverse and inclusive workplace culture allows for social equity, cohesion, and co-production to happen more readily. This means the communities we serve are more ready to collaborate on and contribute towards the design and delivery of strategies to help us achieve the Treasury's goal of lifting the living standards for all New Zealanders.

Productivity

An inclusive culture is proven to boost morale and engagement for employees, which drives benefits to productivity and lower staff turnover. This equates to more value to the New Zealand taxpayer. Diversity encourages creativity and fosters an innovative organisational spirit through openness and inclusiveness, and bringing diversity of thought and perspectives to problem solving, decision making, and carrying out our purpose.

Prospectivity

By managing our diversity well and strategically developing our inclusive culture, we will have the required tools to ‘prospect' for opportunities that help us achieve our purpose. This will allow us to plan better, anticipate barriers before they arise, and deliver better outcomes to New Zealanders.

*These focus areas come from Diversity Works, New Zealand's national body for workplace diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Our context and story so far#

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• Inclusion & Diversity (I&D) has been a key focus for our organisation since 2012 when we developed our first strategy. Our name in te reo, Te Tai Ōhanga, flows from the four tides - reflecting that we both lead and serve from the centre. To achieve our vision of lifting living standards for all New Zealanders, we know we need to be a genuinely inclusive workplace that embraces diverse thinking and effectively engages with and better represents our diverse communities. Our combined Kia Toipoto/I&D action plan builds on prior mahi to be a workplace where everyone is equally welcomed, heard, valued, and respected.
• Establishing our wharenui (meeting house) was a bold and innovative move in the late 1980s. The name of our wharenui, Ngā Mokopuna a Tāne (the grandchildren of Tāne), has great relevance and meaning for us and reminds us of the importance of an intergenerational lens on our mahi.
• Our latest I&D strategy and plan was refreshed using an organisation-wide co-design approach. This resulted in good buy-in from our people, a reaffirmed commitment to I&D, and updated aspirations that signalled the kind of organisation we want to be. I&D is integrated into key processes, such as induction, and regular confidential employee surveys and exit interviews help us track our progress.
• Our refreshed Values and Behaviours, developed using an organisation-wide collaborative process, describe us at our best. Ngā Mokopuna a Tāne serves as both an anchor and inspiration for these. The values Making a difference - Kia pono, Enhancing mana - Kia whakamana and Achieving together - Kia hono guide our actions and support our Guardianship and Stewardship (Tiakina) responsibilities. We've also introduced Te Ara Pounamu Awards to recognise individuals and teams who demonstrate our Values and Behaviours in all they do.
• Leaders are key to driving our I&D mahi. Our Chief Executive (CE) actively champions I&D internally and externally as a member of Champions for Change (a group of private and public sector CEs and Chairs who collectively work to accelerate inclusive and diverse leadership). We hold regular People Leader Forums so our leaders can connect, hear diverse perspectives and share ideas to build a strong, diverse, inclusive organisation. Our People Leader Capability Framework includes a section dedicated to I&D to support individual development.
• In line with our Whāinga Amorangi and Te Puna Anamata (te reo) plans to build cultural capability, we've increased our suite of Māori capability training and survey our people annually to gain their perspectives and assess our progress. Te Wiki o te reo Māori and Matariki are celebrated annually, with senior leader-led initiatives that both engage and educate.
• The Treasury is ably supported by Te Puna Aronui, a cross-organisation network of analysts with expertise in Te Ao Māori and Pacific perspectives. With their guidance, we're on a journey to integrate Te Ao Māori perspectives into our policy advice through our He Ara Waiora framework, which presents a holistic, intergenerational approach to wellbeing. We draw too on wisdom and support from Ngā Pūkenga, a partnership group of Māori thought leaders that provides appropriate stewardship and our use of He Ara Waiora.
• To support the aims of our Pacific Strategy 2022-2025, Ua gatasi le futia ma le umele (a traditional fishing proverb that speaks to partnership and balance between elements), we've developed two learning modules. Shared widely with other public service agencies, the first module focuses on building capability through understanding the Pacific Operating Model. The second module, soon-to-be launched, focuses on applying Pacific perspectives to our policy advice.
• In 2016, the annual Ivan Kwok Award began in honour of Ivan Kwok (ONZ) to recognise excellence in engagement with Māori. The legendary Ivan dedicated 41 years at the Treasury to advising, influencing, and raising awareness across government with his tireless contribution to Crown-Māori relationships.
• One of the unique ways we foster belonging is by welcoming new people to our work whānau with an official pōwhiri greeting in our wharenui, supported by our in-house waiata group, Te Puna Wai. A source of waiata and wairua (spirit) within our organisation, Te Puna Wai supports our Executive Leadership Team and the wharenui at pōwhiri for new starters, visiting dignitaries and on special occasions, as well as giving occasional informal concerts in the atrium and participating in Te Kōnohete (a public sector kapa haka competition).
• We continue to build our kete of organisational cultural resources, and our recently updated Puna Ako mobile application supports correct pronunciation of te reo Māori, tikanga (protocols) and Māori engagement. Available for use by the public as well as our people, the app is a comprehensive and easy to access resource for people wishing to increase their confidence and knowledge to assist them in their daily mahi.
• We aim to eliminate bias from our people processes. In recruitment, use of a gender-decoder tool mitigates potential bias in our advertisements, and a gender pay gap calculator identifies impacts on pay gaps when making remuneration decisions. We routinely monitor like-for-like gender pay gaps, and use gender-balanced recruitment panels when interviewing candidates. We have anonymised recruitment in place for our graduate and intern recruitment campaigns.
• Our employee-led networks include our Women's Network and Rainbow Network, which are well established and supported at Te Tai Ōhanga, having been in place for several years. We're excited that two more networks (Pan-Asian and Neurodiversity) have joined the suite this year and, supported by their senior sponsors, are already working collaboratively to add value to our approach to I&D.
• While we know there's much more to do, we're proud of the progress we have made to date. Our 2023/24 combined Kia Toipoto/I&D action plan sets out how we aim to build on this progress to further close our pay gaps, accelerate progress for diverse women, and create a fairer workplace for all.

Alignment with Papa Pounamu principles#

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The Papa Pounamu programme sets the diversity and inclusion programme for the wider public service and has 5 priority areas. The Treasury's strategy maps closely to the Papa Pounamu principles as shown below:

An overview of the Treasury's Inclusion & Diversity strategy#

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We aim to be an inclusive organisation, and one that attracts and retains the best talent, draws on our diverse skills and experiences and is informed by diverse perspectives. Our I&D strategy focuses on five key areas:

Inclusive workplace practices

Building a culture where everyone feels welcomed, heard, valued, and respected, so they can contribute to their potential.

Leader-led Inclusion & Diversity

Supporting our people leaders to confidently lead and integrate Inclusion & Diversity into our mahi and ways of working.

Inclusive talent approaches

Making our people processes fair, transparent, and equitable by identifying and minimising potential for unconscious bias to affect outcomes.

Cultural capability

Strengthening our culture by building individual and organisational capability, supporting the public sector shared goal of true Māori-Crown partnership.

Data-led monitoring and reporting

Enhancing and improving the quality and transparency of our workforce data to support effective tracking, reporting, and decision-making.

Our 2023/24 action plan summary#

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*Reasonable accommodation is the term used to describe creating an environment intended to ensure equality of opportunity. Accommodations can be physical, religious, mental or emotional, academic, etc.

Workforce data as at 30 September 2023#

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Introduction#

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As we work towards lifting living standards and improving intergenerational wellbeing for New Zealanders, the Treasury (Te Tai Ōhanga) also has a role to play as an employer. Our organisation can positively affect the lifetime earnings of its female and ethnic employees in a global environment where pay gaps still exist for women and non-European ethnic groups.

We remain committed to addressing our gender and ethnic pay gaps as a priority, and we continue to work towards understanding and addressing the drivers that contribute to these gaps.

In this section we will outline our workforce composition, our pay gaps, and some of the contributing drivers.

Representation#

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Workforce composition

As at 30 September 2023, our workforce comprised 666 permanent and fixed-term employees (headcount). Their gender and ethnic representation is shown in this table.

Note that:

• As shown here, a small subset of our employees have not stated a gender or identified as another gender; in the interests of privacy, we have not included them in our analysis other than where gender is not a factor.
• Since one person may identify with multiple ethnicities, ethnicity percentages can add up to more than 100%.
• MELAA stands for Middle Eastern/Latin American/African.

Source: Treasury employee data, September 2023

Employees by gender and employment type

This table shows our gender and employment type breakdown. As at 30 September 2023, 50.2% of our employees are women, 13.5% of whom work part-time (less than 80 hours a fortnight, excluding people seconded out or on extended leave). This compares with 7% of men working part-time.

This table does not include those that have identified as another gender or have not stated a gender, therefore the total in this table does not match the overall headcount.

Source: Treasury employee data, September 2023

Women in senior leadership

At the Treasury, women hold 52% of senior leadership roles (defined as Tiers 1-3). In the public service (by this same definition), women hold 55.9% of senior leadership roles.

We have three women (including the Chief Executive) and four men on the Executive Leadership Team. Kaiurungi is our Tier 3 leadership group. The Māori word ‘Kaiurungi' is used to refer to those who steer or guide the organisation. This group comprises eleven women (including the Tier 2 chair) and eight men.

Data provided to Te Kawa Mataaho for their workforce data release is provided as at 30 June 2023, therefore there may be slight differences in what appears in this report, which uses data as at 30 September 2023.

Source: Te Kawa Mataaho Workforce Data 2023

Ethnic Diversity at Te Tai Ōhanga and in the public service

This graph shows the ethnic makeup of the Treasury and the public service*.

While there has been a small upward trend in the percentage of Māori and Pacific Peoples in our workforce over recent years**, we still have some way to go before we can say that our workforce is representative of New Zealand's population. We are less ethnically diverse than the public service on average, although this is slowly changing over time.

*If an individual reported identifying with two ethnicities that fall into the same Level 1 category (eg, NZ European and Australian, or Chinese and Filipino) this was counted only once.

**The percentage of Māori employees at the Treasury has gone down from 2022 to 2023, however, this is due to the change in our overall numbers of staff rather than people leaving.

Source: Te Kawa Mataaho Workforce Data 2023

Pay Gap#

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Mean gender pay gap over time

Our mean gender pay gap has decreased from 10.8% in 2022 to 8.7% in 2023, which has more than halved since 2018.

It remains slightly higher than the overall public service gender pay gap of 7.1%.

Source: Te Kawa Mataaho Workforce Data 2023

Gender pay gap

We have made significant progress with closing the gender pay gap, with the pay gap more than halving since 2018.

Our data shows that the Treasury's mean gender pay gap is 8.7%, and the median gender pay gap is 7.2%. This is largely influenced by grade distribution.

While we are pleased to see that our gender pay gap has continued to decrease, there is more work to be done, and there are some specific areas we will continue to address in our latest action plan.

Median remuneration by ethnicity

Our data shows that there is still an overall ethnic pay gap. The median remuneration has been used for each ethnic group, because:

• Some groups have low numbers of representation.
• The results are affected by very high or low individual salaries.
• This method better protects individuals' privacy.

The employees who did not specify an ethnicity with which they identified, have not been included in this section of the report.

Source: Treasury Employee Data, September 2023

Mean ethnic pay gap

Our overall ethnic pay gap (non-European vs European) currently sits at a mean of 12.4%. This time last year, our overall ethnic pay gap was sitting at a mean of 24.7%, almost halving over that period.

When looking at the mean ethnic pay gap for our Pacific and Māori employees within our organisation, these groups are experiencing a negative pay gap (in favour of Pacific and Māori). Our Asian and MELAA employees are however experiencing a higher pay gap than the overall public service, although these pay gaps have improved since last year.

Asian pay gap

At the Treasury, we are not seeing the same rise in our Asian pay gap as is being observed in the public service. In fact, we saw an improvement over the past year. However, the factors Te Kawa Mataaho cited in their workforce data release 2023 (tenure and age) are likely to influence why they remain present.

For example, the average tenure for Asian employees at the Treasury is 2.8 years, compared with 4.9 years for non-Asian employees, and the average age for Asian employees at the Treasury is 37.3 years, compared with 41.5 years for non-Asian employees.

Our newly formed internal, employee-led Pan-Asian network is fully committed to helping us understand and address our ethnic pay gaps.

Occupational grouping

Our data shows that patterns of ‘occupational grouping' are still present and continue to have a significant impact on our pay gaps. This is also an issue in similar organisations overseas and across the public service.

Occupational grouping means that women or ethnic groups are over-represented in lower-paid occupational groups and men or Europeans are over-represented in higher-paid occupational groups.

Gender representation by pay quartile

One of the primary drivers of our gender pay gap is occupational grouping, a pattern we generally see emerging as pay gaps increase by grade, tenure, and age. The interplay between these factors can be complex and may be subject to legacy issues (eg, organisational, sectoral, or societal) still evident in parts of the wider system.

For example, women fill 61% of the lower-paid jobs (the bottom quartile), but only 42% of the higher-paid roles (the top quartile).

Source: Treasury Employee Data, September 2023

Occupational grouping: representation by grade and tenure

Our data shows that our gender pay gap increases by grade, in line with external research that suggests the gender pay gap in New Zealand increases for women in more senior positions and on higher salaries.

We see a negative gender pay gap of -9.3% for grades 11-14F, however, we see the gender pay gap increases in grades 15 and above. This may be connected to tenure; women in grades 11-14F have, on average, been at the Treasury for 4.3 years, compared with 1.6 years for their male counterparts. Conversely, men in grades 15 and above have, on average, been at the Treasury longer. For example, men in grades 18-20F and 21-24 have, on average, been at the Treasury 2.5 and 3 years longer respectively.

While hiring men into our higher bands does impact on our overall gender pay gap, the specific gender pay gap for these grade brackets is lower than our overall gender pay gap, despite men having significantly higher average tenure.

Not all of our pay grades had enough people for meaningful comparison, so we have combined our grades into groups.

Gender Representation and GPG by grade

Source: Treasury Employee Data, September 2023

Tenure at the Treasury by grade

Source: Treasury Employee Data, September 2023

Occupational grouping: pay gaps by tenure and age

Our data shows that the gender pay gap increases with tenure, which also relates to occupational grouping. Women with more than 10 years' employment at the Treasury are more likely to be in lower grades than their male counterparts.

The decrease in the gender pay gap for those with under 10 years' employment may also be reflective of our mahi to reduce the gender pay gap in recent years.

By age, we see the gender pay gap fluctuates but rises steeply from the mid-fifties onwards; for under-55, the gender pay gap is 4.1%, whereas for over 55, it is 25.1%. This has a significant influence on our organisational gender pay gap.

Te Kawa Mataaho states, “Gender pay gaps increase with age, starting from 1.5% for those aged 20 to 24 and rising to 11.4% for those aged 60 to 64.” Higher pay gaps for some women over 55 have also been observed in external research*.

Our data points to occupational grouping being the main driver; 46% of women aged over 55 hold roles graded below 18, compared with only 11.8% of men.

*Sin, Stillman and Fabling (2017) and Australian Workplace Gender Equality Agency (2021)

Gender representation and GPG by tenure

Source: Treasury Employee Data, September 2023

Gender representation and GPG by age

Source: Treasury Employee Data, September 2023

Intersectionality

In New Zealand, large ethnic pay gaps exist, compounded for women of diverse ethnicities, combining to create larger pay gaps compared with the average earnings of all men.

Te Kawa Mataaho states: “In the Public Service men are paid more on average than women in each ethnic group, and Europeans are paid more on average than other ethnicities. This reflects the way that gender and ethnic bias compounds for Māori, Pacific and ethnic women. Pacific women and Asian women have the lowest average salaries in the Public Service. Overall, the largest percent increases this year went to Pacific men and women, and Māori men and women.”

Mean gender pay gaps for European and Asian women

Our small sample sizes make it somewhat challenging to effectively examine the causes of the ethnic pay gap, as well as the effects of intersectionality (eg, gender and ethnicity together). We do have sufficient numbers for analysis of the gender pay gaps for female European and Asian employees respectively, shown here.

Compared with all men, we see a small gender pay gap (5.8%) for European women (n=268) at the Treasury and a larger one (19%) for Asian women (n=49). Te Kawa Mataaho's Workforce Data 2023 shows that, in the public service, men are paid more on average than women in each ethnic group, and that Europeans are paid more on average than other ethnicities.

Source: Treasury Employee Data, September 2023

Calculating our gender pay gap#

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Methodology

We calculate pay gaps in alignment with how Te Kawa Mataaho calculates the public service average gender and ethnic pay gaps in their Workforce Data release. Unless otherwise stated, our data throughout this report:

• includes fixed-term and permanent employees, but not temporary/casual employees or contractors/consultants
• is current as at 30 September 2023
• includes all employees seconded out, and employees on extended leave, but not secondees from other agencies working at the Treasury
• is headcount and not Full Time Equivalent (FTE) staff
• is based on the mean gender pay gap
• may have been summarised or aggregated where sample sizes are small (fewer than 20 men or 20 women) and/or where individual privacy is a consideration.

For example:

(Mean male full-time rem - mean female full-time rem)/(Mean male full-time rem) x 100

OR

(Median male full-time rem - median female full-time rem)/(Median male full-time rem) x 100

Calculating our ethnic pay gap#

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Methodology

When calculating ethnic pay gaps, all employees are assigned a value for each major ethnic group:

• TRUE: This employee identifies with this ethnic group.
• FALSE: This employee doesn't identify with this ethnic group.
• Not Stated: The employee did not disclose their ethnicity.

For ethnic pay gap calculations, only employees who have values of TRUE or FALSE are included in calculations. As employees can select up to three ethnicities, an employee can be in multiple ethnic groups and employees who have not disclosed their ethnicity are excluded from the calculations.

The ethnic pay gaps are calculated as the average total remuneration of those that identify with that ethnic group vs those that don't identify with that ethnic group. For our overall ethic pay gap calculation, we use a Non-European vs European format where a positive number indicates that there is a pay gap in favour of European employees.

For example, the Non-European pay gap is calculated as follows. All other ethnic pay gaps are calculated in the same way but by using different ethnic groups.

For example, the Non-European pay gap is calculated as follows. All other ethnic pay gaps are calculated in the same way but by using different ethnic groups:

(Mean European full-time rem - mean Non-European full-time rem)/(Mean European full-time rem) x 100

OR

(Mean Non-Māori full-time rem - mean Māori full-time rem)/(Mean Non-Māori full-time rem) x 100

A closer look at our 2023/24 action plan#

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Leader-led Inclusion & Diversity#

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Inclusive workplace practices#

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Inclusive talent approaches#

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Cultural capability#

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Data-led monitoring and reporting#

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Tracking our progress: Kia Toipoto 2022/23#

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Progress against our 2022/23 Action Plan#

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Engaging with our people

We met with each of our internal employee-led network committees, Te Puna Aronui, and the Public Service Association (PSA) to discuss the progress we have made since last year and explore what we might include in this year's action plan.

Treasury Women's Network

The Treasury Women’s Network (TWN) is one of our longest-standing internal employee-led networks. Their vision is to shape the future of women at the Treasury by providing opportunities for development, fostering valuable connections, and facilitating member success through career growth. They also run events for Suffrage Day and International Women's Day, which are fully supported by our Chief Executive and executive sponsors.

TWN has played a large role in developing our Kia Toipoto action plans, with discussions centred on their insights into the patterns of occupational grouping we observed and how we might address these.

They were pleased to see the progress we had made in this particular area, especially with regard to the delivery of a series of Career Development workshops for the business support cohort, with the aim of supporting participants to craft their personal brands, discover their strengths, and build their confidence to have targeted development conversations with their people leaders. This year they are keen that we explore opportunities to further mitigate bias in our systems and processes around career development, given that research shows that women and certain cultures are likely to be less confident in promoting their own skills and abilities.

Treasury Rainbow Network

The Treasury Rainbow Network (TRN) is our internal Rainbow Network that aims for a safe and inclusive space for LGBTQIA+ employees (including parents of and allies) to connect.

The discussions focused on how rainbow data is displayed in the report, what data is collected by the Treasury, and where improvements can be made, especially in alignment with the public sector's new Rainbow Four-Point Plan, the first step of which addresses visibility and data collection.

We also intend on working with the TRN to pilot Allyship training.

Treasury Pan-Asian Network

The Treasury Pan-Asian Network formed following last year's Kia Toipoto report, where a group of Asian employees came together to discuss the Asian employee experience, potential drivers behind the significant Asian pay gap and how to increase Asian representation in leadership. The Network's vision is to support an authentically positive and inclusive workplace where our Pan-Asian employees can thrive.

So far, the Network has undertaken significant work for the Treasury. This includes onboarding a senior leader sponsor and committee members, undertaking a member survey, participating in graduate and intern interviews, initiating the Accentuated Women of Colour leadership training pilot programme, contributing to the Talent Attraction Project, organising cultural events, mentoring within the network, and engaging with the People & Wellbeing team to support inclusiveness.

The data in this year's report indicates that while the Asian pay gap has improved, it persists. We will continue to work with our Pan-Asian Network and others to examine the drivers of this pay gap, review the levers we have pulled so far, and evaluate how we can work together continue to make a difference. We have signalled this in our refreshed action plan.

Neurodiversity Network

At the time of our engagement on our action plan, the Neurodiversity Network was still in the process of forming. Since then, however, they have successfully launched the network, recruited committee and general members, onboarded an executive sponsor, and published several educational articles to our intranet.

To support the network, members of our People & Wellbeing team have recently attended Unlocking Potential: Neurodivergence in the Workplace training. We have also consulted them on our draft Reasonable Accommodation policy, and we will continue to support and build the relationship with them as they grow the network.

Te Puna Aronui

Te Puna Aronui is a cross-organisation network of analysts with expertise in Te Ao Māori and Pacific perspectives. They host a fortnightly, informal hui with the purpose of providing advice on incorporating a Te Ao Māori view into our work. Anyone in the organisation can attend this hui to present their project and gain the perspectives of this group.

When we consulted Te Puna Aronui on our upcoming Kia Toipoto action plan, they recommended incorporating a greater focus on nurturing an inclusive environment grounded in the aspect of enhancing mana. Our recently refreshed Values and Behaviours includes ‘Enhancing Mana - Kia Whakamana', which has been included in our action plan.

They were keen to focus on attracting more Māori people into our organisation, acknowledging the Talent Attraction Project and some of the initiatives we've trialled as part of our internship recruitment process (eg, advertising in te reo Māori) are great first steps. They have suggested we continue to embed those activities and expand them for a wider audience.

Public Service Association

The Treasury is currently in bargaining with the PSA for a new collective agreement. We met with delegates as part of our wider employee-led network engagement, and gave a high-level overview, focused on building the relationship and providing them with a status update on the 2022/23 action plan. Going forward, we will continue to consult with the PSA via delegates on our Kia Toipoto report and action plans alongside the employee-led networks.

Inclusive workplace practices

Our people feel welcome, heard, valued, and respected

Leader-led Inclusion & Diversity

Take opportunities to continue incorporating Leader-led Inclusion & Diversity capability building options aligned to our leadership development framework and refreshed Values and Behaviours

Cultural capability

Strengthen our culture by building individual and organisational capability

Inclusive talent approaches

To monitor our people processes to ensure they are fair, transparent, and equitable

Data-led monitoring and reporting

To enhance and improve the quality of our workforce data to support effective monitoring and progress reports

Ngā mihi | Thank you