Researching women's wages and conditions

Women’s organisations will make a research based submission to the Fair Pay Commission on the differential between male and female wages and working conditions.

The National Foundation for Australian Women successfully intervened in the 2005 debates on Welfare to Work, with research it had commissioned from the National Centre for Economic and Social Modelling (NATSEM) on the impacts of proposed policy changes on sole parents and women with a disability.

Now NFAW and the Women’s Electoral Lobby (WEL) have joined with the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (HREOC) to benchmark women’s wages and conditions.

The first part of the study (jointly financed with HREOC) will develop the first publicly available national data base on current awards and conditions for women, especially focussed on vulnerable groups of women such as migrants, young women, and women with a disability.

A contract has been let with WiSER (the Women in Economic and Social Research consortium) to undertake this phase of the study and its report will be publicly available by October 2006. One product will be a Women’s Employment Status Key Indicators (WISKI), against which another later study can identify changes.

The NFAW, and the Women’s Electoral Lobby (WEL) now want to raise $75,000.00 to expand their joint research studies into women’s wages and conditions.

The second phase, for which funds are now being sought, will conduct in depth interviews with women workers, across six States. The interviews will explore the specific experiences of the women, and their own knowledge and understandings of the industrial relations system, awards, and bargaining.

WEL and NFAW are in discussion with several other national community organisations to form a consortium to manage the interview phase of the research.

Jenny Earle, speaking on behalf of WEL, said “This research will enable us to identify the impacts on women of changes to our workplace relations framework. Women generally have less bargaining power at work so safety net pay and conditions are vital. It will be great to have more detailed and reliable national data on women’s employment experiences.”

Marie Coleman, speaking on behalf of NFAW said ‘ we are committed to having a sound research base on which to develop social policy analysis. These studies will give us all an un-biased view of how working women’s wages and conditions are changing.’

More information on Researching women's wages and conditions

Donations to the NFAW are tax deductible. Donations should be marked “workplace study” and sent to the NFAW.

Further comment:
Jenny Earle 0412 159 901
Marie Coleman 041 4483067

For information about the research, and how to donate, go to
www.nfaw.org or call 02 4422 2208
Write to NFAW P.O. Box 5009 NOWRA DC NSW 2541