23 Feb 2018

'I love my job' - care worker, NZer of the Year Kristine Bartlett

From Morning Report, 8:35 am on 23 February 2018

Equal-pay advocate Kristine Bartlett changed the lives of thousands of New Zealand's lowest paid workers, which is why she has been announced as the New Zealander of the Year.

Ms Bartlett was the face of a long-running campaign that successfully argued aged care workers were underpaid because theirs was a female-dominated sector.

Her efforts culminated in a $2 billion settlement which boosted the wages of 55,000 workers by between 15 and 50 percent. She joins us in the studio and talks to Susie Ferguson about the achievement. "Women workers have obviously been left behind for too long, & this is a great opportunity to get that gap closed," she says.