In short:
More than half of Australian companies have improved their gender pay gap, compared to last year. But for every $1 a man earns, women, on average, still only earn 78 cents.
The gender pay gap is not about “equal pay for equal work”, but aims to quantify the difference between the average earnings of women and men in the workforce.
What’s next?
Anyone can view the gender pay gaps at companies that employ more than 5 million Australian workers, and their plans to reduce the gap.
The gender pay gap is not about “equal pay for equal work”
Indeed, it seems to be primarily about making rage bait headlines.
Women work less hours on average, with considerably more working part time and those who work full time working less hours than men overall (so less overtime pay). What are you going to do to fix that gap, force women to work more? Between that and less women choosing to work in various higher paid and more physical/dangerous jobs (e.g. trades, mining) it’s no wonder there’s a difference.
It’s about working out what cultural forces are causing women to work less and helping to equalise those. It’s also about how jobs traditionally seen as female-dominated being paid less than male-dominated work. You say
less women choosing to work in various higher paid
I say
Why is the extremely important work of early childcare and teaching not valued as highly as banking or mine working?
I don’t think banking should be paid as highly as it does, but mine workers earn so much because they literally risk their lives at work.
The reason why bankers earn so much probably is because they work with huge amounts of money, so it’s easier for them to demand a cut of it.
Wait so now the pay gap isn’t about women being paid less than men for doing the same job, since that has been proven to be a big fat lie, but is now about women earning less on average across all jobs? What a joke.
Women and men do different jobs. Women don’t tend to work in the mines, in construction, on fishing boats, etc - all dangerous but high paying jobs. Men don’t tend to be healthcare workers or teachers or secretaries or yoga teachers, all lower paying and less risky jobs. This is why women earn less on average - the jobs they do pay less, no matter what sex you are. It’s not a “gender” pay gap, it’s a job pay gap. Some jobs pay more than others, more at 9!
Not “now”, and not a lie. This is what it has always been about.
Nope, it was previously about women earning less than men for doing the same job.
I mean, where I work we’ve hired every female applicant we’ve ever had and we’re still at around 98% male. I’m not sure what we could even do about it.
The Simpson’s Paradox also comes into play here.
It is perfectly possible for 1 group to be (apparently) discriminated in the bulk data, while the reverse is happening in individual data. E.g. a university showing a male bias overall, yet each department shows neutral, or even a female bias.
This makes bulk patterns particularly troublesome to work with. Men and women want different things from work. Men are disproportionately discouraged from having a work life balance, while it’s far more acceptable for women to not maximise their earning potential.
