Equal pay
Almost forty years after Australia's first federal equal pay case began, women's wages are stuck at only 84 per cent of male earnings.
NFAW believes that pay equity is a human right and the failure to provide pay equity strongly influences the decision women make regarding their participation in the workforce.
For some time pay equity has been recognised as important, but efforts to achieve it have led to little change. Depending on which of the various statistical measures are quoted, the current difference between male and female earnings identified by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) can vary from 10 percent to 35 percent.
Table 8.5 in the Australian Bureau of Statistics Yearbook 2008 shows that, "In May 2007 the difference between male and female average weekly earnings was lowest for full-time adult AWOTE (where female earnings were 84% of the male figure of $1,158) and highest for all employees total earnings (where female earnings of $676.50 were 65% of the male figure of $1,038)."
Some of the difference is often attributed to occupational segregation leading to certain jobs being identified as ‘women's work' and therefore paid at lower rates than other industries/occupational groupings. Researchers have argued that the devaluation of women's work can be caused by women self selecting for low paid work, discrimination or both.
The question is: does lower pay occur because of the type of work that women choose to perform, or because women perform the work? Equally interesting is the question of how higher pay occurs, and why women do not receive it.
Men achieve significantly higher pay outcomes than women when discretionary pay components are taken into account. Are men choosing to work longer hours or are they more likely to have the hours they work recognised and rewarded?
Previous explanations for pay inequity have included differences between the education levels of men and women. These differences have been reversed, but pay differences have not.
NFAW recognises there are major impediments to achieving pay equity, which include, amongst other things:
- Entrenched attitudes to women and resulting practices.
- Invisibility of women's skills.
- Lack of ‘presence' in the industrial machinery.
- The misguided belief that if men and women are subject to the same laws, rules and conditions, then equality will result.
- Unconscious acceptance of women's subordination.
Other substantial impediments arise from multiple causes, such as:
- Consequences of women's low retirement savings.
- Movement away from awards and collective agreements.
- Gender segregation of work.
- Undervaluing of women's work.
- Primary caring responsibilities undertaken by women.
- Exacerbated by inadequate provision of out of school hours care, which means that many women choose to work part time.
Recognising the importance of these questions and difficulties, NFAW believes there is a risk that debate can deflect the need for action to address the inescapable problem of pay inequity.
NFAW is emphatically of the view that pay inequity is a significant problem as it directly causes many social and economic problems. Yet many people deny the very existence of pay inequity. These arguments are often accompanied by claims that workplace discrimination has been eradicated and today's disparate wages are simply a result of market forces and working women's choices.
Others link the causes of pay inequity to the choices made by women to step out of the workforce, and then return to it. Often these decisions relate to childbirth and child rearing. Provision of more family friendly work environments for both men and women, and the availability of paid maternity, paternity and parental leave have the capacity to mitigate these potential disadvantages to women.
- This issue being addressed by the Productivity Commission's Inquiry into Paid Maternity, Paternity and Parental Leave.