Why the gender pay gap never closes…
In the lead-up to the Federal Election, we are running a series on specific asks for policy change at the federal level. Today’s piece by Philippa Hall and Sandy Venn-Brown draws from the Women’s Electoral Lobby (@WELAust) Election 2022 Policy Platform. Here they explain what needs to change to close the gender pay gap and increase women’s financial security from employment.
Equal pay is legislated – but with gaps
When the first landmark equal pay decision was made in Australia in 1969 women thought it would herald the end to gender inequality in industrial relations. Sadly, despite the ensuing decades of advocacy, inquiry and slow reform, working women remain disadvantaged and the gender wealth gap has proven both persistent and universal. Recent statistics capturing wage inequality in the Australian workforce are stark. ABS data released in January 2022 showed that average weekly earnings for men were $1625.40, compared to $1166.60 for women (72% of male wages). Full time male workers earned $1934, compared to $1675.90 for women (87%) .
There are many structural and systemic factors which determine this gendered inequality, but the enduring and underlying issues remain discrimination and gender-related undervaluation. Both legislative and industrial frameworks continue to perpetuate outdated conditions and discriminatory practices leading to the pervasiveness of insecure and precarious work, and women’s disproportionate representation in lower wage occupations.
The industrial system doesn’t support women
Nor does the industrial system help women workers. Women are concentrated in lower-paid occupations, and wages for employees in female-dominated occupations are significantly lower than for comparable employees in male-dominated occupations. Women are often in smaller, less unionised workplaces and non-standard work categories. They remain more vulnerable than men to exploitative, casualised and insecure forms of work. Furthermore, these female-dominated professions tend also to be undervalued and the wage setting mechanisms established under our decentralised industrial framework again disadvantages women who are less likely to successfully bargain for better pay and conditions. The deregulation of industrial relations has brought increasing wage theft, reductions in penalty rates, wage stagnation, unpredictable changes to hours and employment arrangements, declining incidence and scope of genuine bargaining, reduced access to effective arbitral and complaint-handling processes, and reduced security of employment.
The Women’s Electoral Lobby (WEL) recognises this continuing failure of the current industrial relations system and, in the lead-up to the Federal election, is calling on all political parties to make tangible steps to improving gender inequality.
Genuine equality requires tackling the deep underlying causes of gender inequality: a prevailing model of workplace pay and conditions historically based on full-time and consistent workforce participation, and where the concept of economically valued work excludes much of the caring (paid and unpaid) work undertaken by women. From an industrial perspective, having and caring for children negatively impacts women’s wages and progression over the career span, particularly for those in low-income careers. Indeed, recent data from 2021 showed that 7 in 10 women are primary carers – for children, people with disabilities, people with health problems and the elderly – and this ratio is growing as the Australian population ages and the disability and aged care services sectors struggle to provide support. These carer responsibilities are also related to the quality of female employment. As women are required to spend more time in an unpaid caring role, they are more likely to accept vulnerable and precarious employment. Strong, consistent and enforceable policies are needed to tackle this growing trend. WEL is advocating for strong policies which enshrine adequate carer leave through standardised leave provisions, including a minimum of 26 weeks paid parental leave. This leave should be equally accessible to men or women based on a shareable family entitlement apportioned according to family needs.
Family-friendly working arrangements enable parents and carers to balance their working hours and caring responsibilities. All employees require the right to part time or reduced hours and the right to return when their caring responsibilities have reduced or ended. WEL is arguing that the flexibilities of workplace and working time needed to support caring responsibilities are just not available for most female-dominated occupations.
The economic effect of these working conditions for women include reduced wages, less hours of work, lack of paid leave and parental leave, less access to higher paid jobs, a reduction in superannuation of the work life, less capacity to negotiate flexible work hours, and increased casualisation and precarious employment. And it has been well identified that casual workers still are denied paid sick leave, personal and carer’s leave and other types of leave deemed fundamental in other full-time work environments.
A case-based approach to pay equity has proven too technical, expensive and protracted, especially as the industrial system fails to understand and address gender-related undervaluation.
These structural economic issues are compounded by a failure to eliminate persistent sexual harassment and discrimination in the workplace. Although there have been many inquiries and reports on the extent of such workplace practices, governments of all persuasions have been reluctant to make employers accountable for eliminating sexual harassment, rather the current legislative framework holds perpetrators accountable and relies consistently on reporting from (mostly) vulnerable victims. Many women continue to suffer discrimination and disadvantage in paid work.
What needs to change
WEL is calling for all political parties to urgently address gender-based work evaluation and underpayment and develop policies with priority for services funded by the government – notably childcare, health, aged and disability care. Gender equality must be a core government objective of industrial relations policy and legislation and to this end it is imperative that gender pay equity is a specified objective of the Fair Work Act 2009.
Unions and women's advocates have also been arguing for some time for a specialist pay equity panel as part of the Fair Work Commission. Such a panel could have responsibility to undertake research into pay equity matters and provide recommendations for consideration by a Full Bench of the Fair Work Commission. This panel could conduct a review of alternative means of making equal remuneration orders with a view to achieving more timely resolution of equal remuneration applications. It could also advise on ensuring that the Fair Work Act’s equal remuneration objectives, concepts, approaches and processes are strengthened.
In its review of industrial relations in the lead-up to the next federal election, WEL also proposes that all policy settings affecting pay and conditions should ensure:
● Casual employees and others in insecure work have a pathway to job security and conditions that align with other workers, such as paid leave and accrued entitlements based on time worked; and
● Improvements to leave entitlements for caring responsibilities and personal and family reasons. In particular, legislation should require employers to provide paid domestic violence leave, and paid parental leave of 52 weeks, paid at replacement earnings levels comparable with annual leave and sick leave entitlements as recommended by the World Health Organisation.
In addition, an integrated gender equity framework for retirement incomes must be given serious consideration to help improve women’s economic security, particularly for older age groups who are increasingly vulnerable to poverty in retirement years. Such a framework would cover Superannuation, the age pension and access to affordable housing.
Read more election analysis from WEL here:
To quota or not to quota: Women’s political representation needs better support
This post is part of the Women's Policy Action Tank initiative to analyse government policy using a gendered lens. View our other policy analysis pieces here.
The ballot box in our Federal Election series logo is courtesy of Flaticon.
Posted by @SusanMaury