Research Sexism an attack on Men
Did IRD request sexist research or did the researchers provide it?
The research, carried out for IRD by Research New Zealand, was based on anonymous interviews with 420 tradespeople in Auckland, including builders, electricians and painters. It followed a marketing campaign by IRD targeting those operating in Flatbush, Takanini, Silverdale and Albany.
How many builders electricians and painters are women?
There are about 30% more working women in New Zealand than men, and none of those women would engage in any work that could remotely be referred to as a trade or would have a cash economy going on under the table?
What are your thoughts?
Can’t see much wrong with this as such. As an accountant I strike this everyday, but there is no mention of gender in the article. If anything it portrays ‘tradies’ in a bad light. I would have to say, though, that I have experienced more females willing and determined to flaunt the law than males. Could it be because they are let of so lightly if they are caught because of their gender? Child pornographer (her OWN CHILD) as an example!
Comment by bjrodger — Fri 29th January 2016 @ 5:20 pm
Ok bjrodger, would you say tradies are avoiding tax or child support?
Comment by Downunder — Fri 29th January 2016 @ 5:57 pm
Having had many different cleaners over the last 14 years, haven’t had one that will let me pay online into her bank account – they have all insisted on cash… Most have been single mums.
Comment by Robyn — Sat 30th January 2016 @ 8:04 am
Both are taxes, :-). And both despicable in their application. Not sure what the situation is now, but when I was paying ‘Liable Parent Contributions’ (as it was called back then) it didn’t matter if i was earning or not, the bill just accumulated and near doubled with interest and penalties. I just found the article to be relatively gender-neutral, though I agree that the underlying reality overwhelmingly disadvantages males.
Comment by bjrodger — Sat 30th January 2016 @ 11:29 am
Tradesmen and women will nearly all be paying plenty of tax. Most customers, especially for larger jobs but even for small jobs, don’t pay cash. Many people use bank cards for every small purchase in shops. Tradies may do the odd smaller cash job and they no doubt will appreciate those jobs when they come. Sensible tradies will declare cash receipts in their tax returns but personally I wouldn’t begrudge them failing to declare every last cent of it.
The cost to the country of our foolish encouragement and sponsorship of sole parents (mainly mothers) is many times greater than the loss of taxes through tradies’ cash jobs. A significant proportion of those sole parents are fraudulent, having ‘separated’ simply because they would get much more money living separately on the DPB than living jointly on their partners’ minimal wage. They officially live separately but cooperate as parents and join as partners as much as they can without beng discovered. There doesn’t seem to be much effort by the authorities to discover them, and even when the sole mothers are caught out the normal sense of compassion towards women means few are ever prosecuted or required to return their ill-gotten gains. Nevertheless, many of those couples will separate as their individual accommodation and lifestyles lead them to grow apart and look elsewhere.
Sole parents often receive $600 plus per week. That’s not much to live on (though often a lot more than what the ‘liable parent’ is left with after being plundered to pay for it), but the cost to the country is huge, greater than all other benefits except for superannuation. An even greater cost is the social degredation and personal tragedy caused by this enticement to break up our children’s family units. For the state to keep funding this travesty in its current form while it harasses hard-working tradespeople for doing a few cash jobs is appalling. The fact that those tradepersons are mainly male will definitely be a major reason this is thought to be acceptable.
Comment by Man X Norton — Sat 30th January 2016 @ 11:42 am
What I’ve observed about tradies is that their skills usually extend beyond their own trade.
What I’ve also observed is a few women who have acquired a bit of cash from separation, hooking up with a tradie and developing some quite nice accommodation, and property interests.
If you were a ‘kept’ tradie, the odd cash job here and there would just be a bit of spending money.
Comment by Downunder — Sun 31st January 2016 @ 2:17 pm