Pay gap between women and men comes under scrutiny

Any employer, including small businesses, would need to disclose what female staff earn relative to men to a Pay Equity Unit with a ‘’sticks and carrots” approach to solving the gender pay gap, a Federal Government report recommends.

Describing the main industrial relations system as ‘’steeped in gender assumptions”, the committee chaired by the Labor MP Sharryn Jackson found most women worked in low-paid and casual work that was reliant on the minimum wage and award safety nets, and wants the ”modern” awards also re-examined on gender grounds.

The Committee found that Australian women are paid on average 17 per cent less than men because of social assumptions about the role of women as parents, because women disproportionately work in part-time and casual work and because typically female ”caring” work is undervalued.

It also found that plain sex discrimination was also to blame.

Source: Sydney Morning Herald www.smh.com.au

Comment:

Australia is a country of equal opportunity, where women have the same rights as men.  In Australia, it is illegal to discriminate against anyone because of their gender.

Ms Jackson and her committee seem to me to have based their argument on a somewhat shaky foundation. If one works in a low paid or casual job, one will obviously earn less than someone who works full-time in a highly paid job. I don’t see that as discrimination, or a gender assumption, just a pragmatic example of cause and effect.

And although I agree that caring work is undervalued, I would argue that is the result of market forces of supply and demand, rather than discrimination.

 The answer? To educate ALL children about the commercial realities and long term implications of their work and life choices at an early age, so they are able to make informed decisions at each of their life transition points, and plan ahead for the inevitable pressures and conflicts that are part and parcel of parenting.

Tags: Anti discrimination, pay equity, Pay Equity Unit

This entry was posted on Monday, November 30th, 2009 at 6:14 pm and is filed under Pay and gender equity. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.