Wages reaching parity for women students

Press, 24 January 1984, Page 9

Wages reaching parity for women students

PA Wellington The Student Job Search scheme has brought wages for women in line with men’s .rates over the last two months, according to the New Zealand University Students’ Association. The association’s education and welfare vice-presi-dent, Ms Sarah Salmond, said that the average hourly rate for women was 94 per cent of the equivalent hourly rate for men. “When compared with the same time last year, when women’s wages were only 60 per cent of men’s, this is a great achievement for all job search centres,” she said.

Ms Salmond said that there appeared to be some sex-role stereotyping in the types of jobs men and women were getting through Student Job Sea-ch.

“For example, 77 per cent of those in general labouring jobs are men, and 91 per cent of those in building and construction are men. Women are over-repre-sented in clerical, office and service areas, which do not pay as well as labouring work,” she said. Not enough jobs were being found for Pacific Island students. "While Student Job Search achieves miracles in terms of finding jobs on limited budgets with low levels of staff, there is still a need for a fully subsidised public sector employment programme,” she said. “For the period November 9 to December 13, 1983, there were 6500 students unemployed. The lack of summer jobs severely limits students’ access to a tertiary education,” Ms Salmond said.