The Economic Value of Unpaid Work: Qiulae Wong on Systemic Political Reform

The traditional eight-hour workday was built for an industrial era that simply no longer reflects how modern families live or work. While workplaces slowly adapt to hybrid setups, the systemic pressure on working parents. And the long-term financial hit taken by mothers, remains largely unaddressed.

In this episode, Emma kicks off a special series bringing political leaders into the conversation to explore real, systemic solutions to the motherhood penalty. First up is Qiulae Wong, leader of The Opportunity Party (TOP) and mum of two. Drawing on her career in purpose-led business and corporate sustainability, Qiulae breaks down why our current economic structures leave parents struggling, how a universal safety net could reshape family life, and why New Zealand urgently needs to rethink how we value caregiving.

Emma and Qiulae explore the harsh realities of returning to work after children, the hidden costs of early childhood education, and why fixing the motherhood penalty requires bold economic reform rather than small policy tweaks.

In This Episode, You'll Learn:

• Asynchronous Working: How flexible, outcome-focused workplaces create environments where caregivers, parents, and businesses actually thrive.
• The Citizen’s Income Proposal: How a universal payment model provides a genuine safety net for parents taking time out of the paid workforce for caregiving.
• Childcare as Essential Infrastructure: Why early childhood education requires better funding standards, lower ratios, and broader choices to stop parents feeling trapped on a financial hamster wheel.
• The Shared Leave Gap: Why government parental leave payments must evolve to support both parents fully without driving families into financial distress.
• The Missing NZ Data: Why New Zealand must follow international models to track and measure the true, long-term impact of the motherhood penalty on women's earnings and KiwiSaver balances.

Connect with Emma

This podcast was funded and created by Emma Mclean, the founder of Works for Everyone. Emma Mclean is a mum of three and founder of Works for Everyone, a professional development business that partners with NZ's leading corporates to help them retain and grow their working parent talent. She does this through innovative leadership programmes, executive coaching and keynote speaking. She founded her business in 2019 following a 20-year career in corporate strategy where she experienced first-hand how hard it was to have a career and a family. As an impatient optimist when it comes to system change, she launched her successful podcast "How to Smash the Motherhood Penalty" in 2023 where she talks to humans who are actively working to change the system that creates financial penalties that only mothers pay. And in 2024 she launched the first NZ Part Time Power List, to shine a light on those senior roles in NZ that are career building, not side stepping.

To work with Emma or enquire about speaking: emma@worksforeveryone.co.nz

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