"Onus must go on businesses to lift pay of Pacific workers - commissioner", 19 July 2022

Research that exposes inferior pay rates for Pacific people confirms years of complaints about inequity, the Equal Employment Opportunities commissioner says.

The majority of the Pacific Pay Gap can't be explained and is likely due to racism or unconscious bias by employers, the study has found.

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For Pasifika men, those factors accounted for only 27 percent of the pay gap, meaning almost three-quarters of the pay gap couldn't be explained.

For Pasifika women, 61 percent of the pay gap couldn't be explained.

The Equal Employment Opportunities commissioner, Saunoamaali'i Karanina Sumeo, said the research provided numbers for years of inequity that Pacific people have complained of.

"It is horrifying and it's the sort of numbers we would really like business to pay attention to in terms of how we go forward and it's also the sort of data we would like government to pay attention to...

"We are talking about people's livelihoods; the hardship facing their children."

She said under the Human Rights Act it was unlawful for employers or anyone acting on their behalf to offer less favourable pay and conditions to some job candidates.

It was a basic human right to be paid in a fair manner, she told Morning Report.

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