It’s Equal Pay Day! HOORAY!
If you’re thinking that means we have reached gender pay equality, then think again! Pigs can’t fly yet.
Equal Pay Day – organised by the government’s Workplace Gender Equality Agency — marks the day since the end of the financial year when women can claim to have earned the same as men.
That means since June 30 it has taken women on average about 70 extra days (or 40 working days) to catch up.
Just digest that for a second.
This perfectly demonstrates how if we keep going the way we are going, women are in for a lifetime of inequality (yay!). We’ll be facing a similar situation next year. Because we are already two months behind.
We keep on trucking, because we are absolute champs.
But this is an important reminder to keep fighting for pay equality and urging our business leaders to admit there is an endemic problem that desperately needs rectifying.
Equal Pay Day is calculated based on figures by the Australian Bureau of Statistics putting our nation’s current gender pay gap at 16.2 per cent – a difference of $261.10 per week.
It’s narrowed slightly from 18.5 per cent in November 2014.
As Minister for Women Michaelia Cash has pointed out: “While this is a promising improvement, we have a long way to go.”
WGEA director Libby Lyons has seized on today to, once more, call for action from employers. Without it, we are missing out on huge benefits to both businesses and society.
“The persistent gender pay gap is a symbol that women’s potential is not being fully realised or valued in the workplace, at great cost to individuals and the economy. It is beyond time to change that,” Ms Lyons said.
“Over a lifetime, compounded by time out of the workforce due to caring responsibilities, the gender pay gap contributes to greatly reduced lifetime earnings and retirement savings. On average, women retire with just half the superannuation savings of men.”
And here are some more stats to chew on. In ASX 200 organisations, the gender pay gap is a staggering 28.7 per cent. Superannuation balances for women at retirement is 52.8 per cent less than men's. And the portion of female CEOs is at 15 per cent.
Ms Cash said figures for female employment levels were at a heartening an all-time high, it was essential to "address unconscious bias which impacts on gender participation."
She added: "Businesses should have a clear picture of how their employees are remunerated to ensure they are not unknowingly contributing to the gender pay gap."
Ms Cash highlighted some initiatives the Turnbull Government was taking, including investing $13 million to get more women into science, technology, engineering and maths careers, boosting the superannuation of women who have taken time out of work via a tax offset and aiming for to reach a 50-50 gender representation on government board positions.
WGEA says the gender pay gap is influenced by a multitude of factors:
- women and men are concentrated in different kinds of jobs leading to industry and occupational segregation
- earnings differences between male and female-dominated industries and occupations
- under representation of women in senior positions
- the distribution of unpaid caring responsibilities
- discrimination and bias
On Equal Pay Day, the agency is urging all employers to address gender pay gaps and support women’s participation in the workforce as well as progression into senior and non-traditional roles.
So while you bosses out there get to work on that, I'll be here, sipping on my glass of Yellow.
Top Comments
Point 5 is a logical fallacy. In many commercial industries, wages or payroll is the highest single expense item for a corporation or business. Market economy and logic dictates that if women are, or could be, paid less because they're women, then those corporations and businesses would employ women only.
WGEA says the gender pay gap is influenced by a multitude of factors:
1 women and men are concentrated in different kinds of jobs leading to industry and occupational segregation
2 earnings differences between male and female-dominated industries and occupations
3 under representation of women in senior positions
4 the distribution of unpaid caring responsibilities
5 discrimination and bias
I think for the most part people agree that these are the main factors (I've numbered them rather than used the dot points in the article for ease of discussion). The question is which ones are the biggest drivers?
Are 1 and 2 the same thing? Or at least 2 comes from 1?
There is no doubt jobs seen as women's jobs tend to pay less. The recent story was on child care, and nursing and teaching are common examples as well. The problem is none of these professions bring much money. If you rely on the government for a wage they are generally going to be low.
Personally I think 4 is the biggest issue. Women are often paid less because they are out of the workforce due to caring responsibilities for (up to) years at a time. Culture needs to change so that men see this as their responsibility as well. However that means it is not a 'wage gap' issue, it's a cultural one.
3 & 5 definitely have an impact but I believe it is less than the other points. Discrimination works at a lower level (i.e. individual or company, not professions, in general) and is tough to change, while percentage of managers only affects a smaller amount of people.
We should of course be aiming to address all of these points to try and make everything ore even.