Equal pay for women is on the Skills Summit agenda. What’s the situation in Australia?
- Increasing workforce participation of women has been suggested as one of the ways the government could try to address a worker shortage in the country.
- Australian men earn 14.1 per cent more than women.
Those pushing to tighten the gender pay gap in Australia are hoping the federal government’s Jobs and Skills Summit will prompt a change in the way we think about jobs and different industries.
One of the first topics of discussion on Thursday is ‘equal opportunities and pay for women.’
In the issues paper compiled ahead of the forum by the Treasury, it was reported that women in full-time work were earning an average of $255.30 per week less than men.
While the OECD lists Australia's gender pay gap as 12.27 per cent, recent ABS figures show it has increased to 14.1 per cent. Source: SBS News
National President of BPW Australia (the Australian Federation of Business and Professional Women) Jacqueline Graham said the gender pay gap is an “outward representation of some systemic issues around the way we value work in Australia”.
Behind from the outset
Ms Graham said research showed the gap starts as women enter the workforce, with the average female graduate starting on a pay rate approximately four per cent lower than the average male graduate.
While more women work in lower-paid industries, this is not the only driver behind women taking home less pay overall, there is a persistent gender pay gap across all industries in Australia.
“We're not talking about the difference between two people being paid differently for work of the same or comparable value because that's unlawful, and it has been unlawful in Australia for over 40 years,” she said.
“What we're talking about is performing the same or equivalent work or moving women into a role where the average woman earns around the same as the average man.”
We're not talking about the difference between two people being paid differently for work of the same or comparable value because that's unlawful.
’Feminised’ industries
Ms Graham said it’s not as simple as encouraging women to move into the mining industry so they earn more money.
“There’s a conversation around choice, that women choose to go into lower remunerated field because it suits them better, but how is our choice shaped? And how far back do we go to decide that?” she said.
Ms Graham said it was also worth considering why less value is placed on workers in certain industries, which often played important roles in society.
She hopes detail on how gender pay equity requirements will be incorporated into the Fair Work Act may be discussed at the summit.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese commented on the gender pay gap when he made this commitment earlier this week.
"A success would be a closing of the gap rather than expanding. The recent figures were going the wrong way (and) we want it to go the right way,” he said.
Mothers in the workforce
Ms Graham said she hoped the summit would consider structural change so women would receive any wage increases that occurred within their workplace while on parental leave, so they did not fall behind.
Executive Director of advocacy group The Parenthood Georgie Dent said countries such as Sweden and Norway which had invested heavily in early learning saw better outcomes for women in the workforce.
“Where countries have invested in making early learning completely affordable and really good quality that boosts women's overall workforce participation and it reduces gender inequity,” she said.
In comparison to Australia’s gender pay gap, as reported by the Workplace Gender Equality Agency, of 14.1 per cent, both Norway and Sweden’s gender pay gaps are in the single digits.
Ms Dent hopes the summit will see the government’s planned changes to early childhood education brought forward and for a commitment to increase wages in the traditionally female industries.
On Tuesday, The Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) called on the government to fast-track reforms that will increase childcare subsidies, which are due to come into place from 1 July, 2023.
In the long term, ACTU president Michele O'Neil said early childhood education and care should be free in Australia.
Ms O'Neil said the measure would boost women's economic participation and should be a government priority to drive productivity.
Social Services Minister Amanda Rishworth on Tuesday said the education and early childhood education ministers are working on the government's promised childcare subsidy policy.
At the Jobs and Skills Summit, Ms Rishworth said "a whole range of areas ... to boost participation for women potentially locked out of the labour market altogether", would be examined.
