Why should we improve pay equity?
These are only some of the reasons we need to improve pay equity. Send an email if there are other reasons you would like to add to this list.
| Pay equity is a human right | Industrial and anti-discrimination laws, which call for pay equity, are underpinned by human rights principles |
| Pay equity is critical to increasing the participation of women in employment | Women are an increasingly educated and skilled part of the talent pool available to employers, but pay inequity acts as a disincentive to their employment |
| Pay equity helps women to succeed at work | Pay inequity reflects the failure of classification structures and pay scales to reflect the real skills being performed. For example, outworkers who make a whole garment from beginning to end without supervision are paid far lower rates than factory workers who work under supervision, performing only small parts of a job. Gender bias in work value assessments predominates in industries and occupations comprised predominantly of women. Female dominated industries need to be reviewed for comprehensive equitable work value assessments |
| Pay equity is crucial to work/life balance | "Pay inequity is a symptom of an unsupportive workplace culture which creates less incentive for women to press for work-life balance" (from Barbara Pocock and Natalie Skinners, Work, Life and Workplace Culture which found unsupportive organisational cultures have more work-life conflict and are less likely to provide working arrangements that suit women) |
| Pay equity encourages men to take a greater role in childrearing | "We hear men argue for a greater work/family balance but the lack of affordable childcare combined with the pay gap forces most families to forfeit the earnings of the lower paid mother. If we had equal pay, more men could spend time with their children without losing out financially. We will never achieve work and family balance until we have equal pay." (Media comment by Dr Helen Szoke, Victorian Equal Opportunity Commission Chief Executive, 8 March 2005) |
| Pay equity makes women and children less vulnerable to poverty | In Australia, more women than men live in poverty, and a woman living on a low income heads the majority of single parent households. This has health and social consequences; women and children in these situations are more likely to suffer poor nutrition, inadequate housing, poor performance at school and social isolation. |
| Pay equity leads to higher retirement incomes for women. | Women with lower pay as they age are also subject to the poorer health and social consequences arising from low incomes that are mentioned above. |
| Pay equity is related to economic independence | Women who are economically dependent are more like to remain in violent relationships
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| Pay equity is good for business and for the economy
| Women's wages are essential to family incomes, and lower wages can mean loss of adequate health care, or tertiary education opportunities for children. Women influence or make purchasing decisions in most families. As consumers, women have increasing power in the economy, and pay inequity can influence the way women perceive business and make economic decisions, including purchasing decisions. Evidence shows that diverse groups make better and more innovative business decisions than non-diverse groups. The lower participation of women in business decision-making means that businesses are not taking advantage of the benefits of diverse decision-making. There is less incentive for women welfare recipients to seek transition to employment than men. |