WHERE’S OUR $252.80?
On average men earn $252.80 a week more than women in Australia.
When will that pay gap be closed? That’s what the working women of this country would like to know.
And those of us who are mothers ask… why should we be penalised for leaving work to have kids? Did we get pregnant by ourselves? Is the idea of the immaculate conception alive and well in the Australian workplace?
It’s time we all understood that raising children is not “women’s work”.
It is the important work of nation-building and both men and women should have equal investment in it.
As it stands, when women leave work to have children, they lose job security, career opportunities and wages.
A woman who takes one year of maternity leave experiences, on her return to work, a reduction in her hourly wage of nearly five percent, with the figure rising to 10 percent after a three-year break.
Overall, women’s pay rates are stuck at 17.5 percent behind men’s and have been for 20 years. And in the worst gender pay imbalance – in the finance and insurance sector – women earn 32.7 percent less than the men they work with.
New figures released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics show that women working full time earn on average $1,193.50 per week. Men pocket an extra $252.80, earning $1446.30 per week.
The eyes of the nation’s female workforce will be on the Senate this week as it considers a new Bill to ensure equality in the workplace.
If passed, the Workplace Gender Equality Act 2012 will remove the barriers that stop women from equal participation.
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12 Responses to this article
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Jane Caro August 20, 2012
Alternatively, we could just start a campaign to give women a 17.5% discount on all purchases.
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Kevin August 20, 2012
My impression is the difference in pay rates is heavily influenced by different work roles for the genders. Whether, for example, one type of job gets paid less than another is a separate issue altogether and men in those underpaid roles get paid just as poorly as women. Talking about it in simple terms of overall/average ‘different pay rates’ seems to just confuse the issue. I would bet that upper income jobs are where the differences between remuneration for the same job are a real (and very big) issue. Surely it would be better to focus squarely on that.
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Casey August 20, 2012
Why are the relevant parties ie: Discrimination Commissioner, Equal Opportunity Commissioner, Office of Women etc not aggitating significantly and openly to let women know that there is hope? It seems like these issues are contantly discussed and aired to no outcome. Where is our power to change this inherent unfairness? I am going through a divorce and the biggest mistake I made was taking responsibility for my family when married – I worked full time; went to uni whilst on mat leave and got a qualification; took minimum maternity leave; my husband took time out ‘to find himself and his passion’ and worked part time time to time and is now alleging that I made little to no contribution in the marraige and the care of our home and kids. Makes me ill. We women just can’t seem to get a fair go. Sad.
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Pete Fumberger August 20, 2012
This is a lie perpetuated by the feminazi lobby, and forever spruiked by the girlies out there just to have a bleat.
No wymyn is paid less than a man when working in the same industry, doing the same hours, doing the same work, and not on a contract.
What you are perpetuating here is the lie that wymyn earn less because of their gender.
Please give all on here one example where a wymyn is paid less than a man for just being a wymyn
You will find I think that those figures are based on average earnings of the sexes.
Just one example please. And I will eat humble crow if you can and genuflect and grovel before thee.-
soozy August 20, 2012
LAW end of story #Pete. Female graduates are commonly paid less than men on entry to the profession.
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Caitlin August 20, 2012
Oh Pete, if you want us to take you seriously then try not using terms like “feminazi”, “girlies” and “wymyn”.
There are lots of examples where “when working in the same industry, doing the same hours, doing the same work” are paid less. Why add the proviso “not on a contract”? Probably because you know that this is where your argument would come undone.
Most professional jobs involve contracts with negotiated salaries and that this is where you often end up with a big gender gap in terms of income. Starting salaries for law is one example given by Soozy but it happens time and time again, across many industries.
If someone is on award wages then there is equal pay for equal work in the same job. But many people are not on award wages. I don’t know why you would seek to limit the debate to that, when it is such a small part of the equation.
Then there is the related issue of traditionally female industries being paid less than traditionally male industries. Did you know that the starting salary for a nurse is less than the average wage for a council garbage collector? Yes, collecting garbage is a dirty job, but so is nursing. And nurses need a uni degree.
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Susan August 20, 2012
I don’t know about the wymyn Pete because I am a woman. I must say when I returned to teaching after having had children I was a much better teacher because I had had an insight into the realities of life-likewise,so was my husband. But one of our sons is teaching in a technical area of a male dominated workforce and is receiving twice the amount we received combined. Perhaps that is one example….
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neil August 21, 2012
can you believe we r still talking about this! High time. and Pete if you r right provide data not aggro even u r right and the premise is wrong and u r in fact walking the talk already, it costs u nothing ..not a cent… but it provides individual workers with certainty and recourse against those employers who r not. stop wining and let’s be grateful we may soon move past this long overdue issue. have you been watching puberty blues?
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Pete August 22, 2012
I use wymyn and feminazis facetiously, and don’t care if I am taken seriously.
But I am serious in again requesting examples of women earning less than men just because they are women.
Soozy, if what you wrote is true then why is nothing being done? Seriously, this is 2012, and if it is still happening, and this is in law, well, these women must be stupid not to raise hell about it.
Again, there is no job in Australia where a woman is paid less than men just because of her gender, because if there were the feminists would be up in arms, screeching about how downtrodden women still are.
Please desist with this furphy and state what it really is all about, and that is, men are ON AVERAGE paid $250 or so more a week, because of many factors, like more women work casual or part time, there are still more men holding down the top jobs, et cetera
Notice I used the correct spelling, just so not to upset some out there.
I can also cite jobs where men work harder than women, do much more in the daily grind, but earn the same wage.
Strange how we never seem to hear women bleating about that. And I’m not even bleating about it because I no longer work and don’t particularly care who earns what and for how much work, although, every time I see some woman or magazine spout the wages furphy I comment.
