MinterEllisonRuddWatts has publicly reported its gender and ethnic pay gap information, becoming New Zealand’s first law firm to do so.
MinterEllisonRuddWatts has taken deliberate steps to drive sustainable change within the firm and the wider legal profession, focusing on empowerment, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) initiatives. Reporting on the firm’s pay gaps was a commitment made in its Sustainability Strategy and as a founding partner of Global Women’s Champions for Change movement.
The firm’s Chair, Sarah Sinclair highlights the importance of analysing pay gaps within organisations.
“We are proud of our work to encourage greater inclusion and diversity in the legal profession and creating a positive and sustainable impact remains a focus for our firm,” says Sarah Sinclair.
“As a partnership, we are committed to building an inclusive workforce that reflects the diverse communities of New Zealand.
“We understand the power of diversity in business and how it achieves better outcomes for our clients and our firm. Creating an inclusive culture supports diversity and better decision making and advice at all levels of organisations. We are reporting our results as it is, quite simply, the right thing to do.”
MinterEllisonRuddWatts’ pay gaps are:
- Employee gender pay gap: 8.0%
- Legal staff gender pay gap: -11.1%
- Employee ethnicity pay gap*: Māori: 12.4% Pasifika: 4.1%
* Using all other ethnicities as the baseline.
The gender pay gap is a percentage measure of the difference between the median hourly earnings of all women and the median hourly earnings of all men.
The ethnicity pay gaps are a percentage measure of the difference between the median hourly earnings for everyone identifying as a specific ethnic group and the median hourly earnings of all other employees.
Chief Executive, Andrew Poole explains the firm’s pay gaps saying:
“Our gender pay gap reflects the higher number of women in lower paid administrative roles, which we are addressing by reviewing roles and providing career progression opportunities. Our ethnicity pay gaps reflect the progress we are making towards achieving our diversity and inclusion recruitment objectives.
“While New Zealand’s gender pay gap was reported as 9.1% by Statistics NZ in August last year, we know that we have more work to do. We are committed to progressing our diversity and inclusion initiatives throughout our firm to reduce the gaps.”
More detailed information on the firm’s pay gaps is available here. The firm’s results have also been shared with mindthegap.nz – New Zealand’s first pay gap registry.
