Women get paid less than men because they need to take monthly "sick days" and extra leave, an employers association boss says.
Predictable outrage ensues.
It'a all a numbers game really, there are plenty of highly paid women in New Zealand, on salaries that would make the average working stiff's eyes water.
Take any two groups of people defined however it suits you and compare their average incomes (or any other parameter for that matter) and they will almost certainly differ. So if it suits your agenda to claim that group A is discriminated against and group A's average salary is lower than group B's you are home.
We could play the same game for Catholics/Protestants, Atheists/Christians, Brunettes/Blonds and so forth. Whatever takes your fancy - if you wish to agitate a particular group is discriminated against.
A sad fact of life is that it is unfair and people are not equal nor treated equally and while women maybe under represented in the higher echelons of income they are also under represented in the lowest stratum of society ie the homeless which is a mostly male preserve.
As individuals we have to treat other people as individuals based upon their personal merit not pigeonhole them according to other peoples agendas.