Gender Pay Gap in Australia
Introduction
Gender pay gap in Australia is calculated as the difference between average full time weekly salary of men and women represented as percentage of men’s salary. National gender pay gap in Australia is calculated basis on the average weekly full time data revealed through Australian bureau of statistics. National gender pay gap at present (May-2014) is at 18.2% currently but it has hovered from 15% to 18.2% from year 1990 to year 2014. There are range of factors such as the interrelated work, stereotype about work done by women & men, societal & family factors and way women & men engage in work activities etc (ABS, 2014). Further depending upon different industries and different jobs there is
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no. 6302.0, viewed 25 February 2014, http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/mf/6302.0
Gender pay gap prevailing in Australia are quite complex and interrelated with each other and some of the key factors leading to pay gap in Australia includes below mentioned:
• Discrimination: Gender discrimination occurs in a country when a person is treated differently due to their gender. From indirect way, discrimination arises due to the education, family and job difference between a men and women. Choices adopted by men and women would influence the views regarding career adopted by particular gender e.g. women should be in caring responsibilities (ABS, 2013). Several times, employer may form perception regarding job type and career path which is suitable for women. This may create gender pay gap as there would be difference in job applied by women and job offered by employer to men & women. Study from NATSEM reveals that 60% of the pay gap in Australian context can be justified due to the direct discrimination or factors for being a woman. Another study in context to pay gap in Australian managers reveals that 70% of the wage pay gap can’t be explained due to the employment related factors such as the work experience, industry or family situation of the employees. Further this study indicates that these 70% of the factors are explained basis on the gender of a person i.e. being a female. Hence discrimination among
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Some of the occupations have higher percentage of women such as the administrative and clerical work (75%), sales worker (63%), professionals (52%) and personal & community service (68%) etc. There are mixed reactions from the studies regarding occupational segregation being important factor for enhancing wage gap among men and women (WACOSS, 2009). Some studies confirms that occupational segregation is important towards pay gap while other studies denies importance of occupational segregation being an important factor contributing towards wage gap in
Another reason for the pay discrepancy is that women are usually employed in low-wage occupations and industries, such as teaching. Even women working in the same industry, and having equal qualifications, earn less than their male counterparts — in fact, even top women executives earn considerably less, on average, compared to their male peers (Patel, 2016). The other reason for the gender pay gap is that more women than men work part-time jobs. According to the Canadian Women's Foundation (n. d), for the last 30 years until 2013, about 70% of part-time/temporary workers were women, which translated to 60% of minimum wage earners being women. Finally, the Canadian Women's Foundation (n. d) claims that approximately 10-15% of the wage gap is
There is a pay gap between men and women in the U.S. The pay gap affects women of all educations levels, and backgrounds. But white men are the largest demographic in labor forces so they possibly favor each other as opposed to women. The graph didn’t specify the type of jobs, or whether they were working parts time or fulltime. But in 2016, women working full time in the U.S. were paid 80% of what men were getting paid. There are some occupations that have not reached the equity but some have like retail, banking and real
Thesis: Gender pay gap continues to impact working women in today’s society. Women who have the same education and experience as men deserve to be paid the same. By participating in the organizations to help stop the issue of unequal pay can eventually stop gender discrimination.
This social justice issue is important in the community because it impacts women by disrespecting them, it makes women feel like they are not valued. Our central question is does pay equal respect? If pay equals respect then women are definitely not being respected. Society believes that men have that higher power so they should get paid more, this is a . It impairs the ability of women and families to buy homes and pay for college education, it limits their total lifetime earnings, savings, and benefits, which makes women much more vulnerable to poverty in retirement.This issue expands even into nonprofits as of nonprofits with budgets
This is how sex segregation starts in the work place. The definition for gender segregation (in employment) this term is referred to the unequal distribution of men and women in the occupational structure, sometimes also (and more accurately) called ‘occupational segregation by sex’. There are two forms: ‘vertical segregation’ describes the clustering of men at the top of occupational hierarchies and of women at the bottom; ‘horizontal segregation’ describes the facts that at the same occupational level men and women have different job tasks (Gender Segregation in Employment). Having different job task is how the workplaces try to explain the differences in the pay. Having the same title in occupation but different tasks is out of the woman’s control but is no reason why there should be a wage gap. For example, in the article of Gender & Society, the women in the small firm were expected to put in the same long hours as their male colleagues and to put their work first, before family responsibilities (Gender & Society). This is a way to control females but even though they are expected to do the same as men the pay isn’t the same. Once again this is one form that men in the workplace feel more powerful then women but the truth is that yes they are giving women the same responsibilities and still are seen and treated as less powerful. Masculine-stereotyped patterns of on-the-job behavior in
they are not paid equally. Study shows that in 1900 one of the five people in the U.S. paid work
Despite the great lengths society has overcome in regards to gender inequality, social issues regarding the difference between men and women still exist. Women in today’s society still continually earn less than men in almost every single occupation. Women were given the right to vote in 1919, yet in 2016 they still have not achieved full equality in comparison to their male counterparts. Gender equality related to equal pay is concerning not only in my own community, but the entire nation.
To resolve the gender wage gap, the government should consult with employers in federally-regulated sectors to apply a gender-based analysis to the design, development, implementation and evaluation of the policy. The law should clearly outline the systematic discrimination that women face in the workforce. This policy would entail employers to determine whether gender-based disparities exists and reevaluate the current pay system from an equity perspective to ensure and promote pay transparency. The law of ensuring pay equity should first be applied to the public sector, including federal public servants, employees of Crown cooperation and federally regulated companies. After this law has been found to be effective, it is also recommended that private corporations follow the same suit and comply with the pay equity
Our society is structured according to already predetermined dimensions. Especially significant is gender. Our gender is an element that can not only define differences but also create advantages and disadvantages (unequal society 148). It therefore becomes essential to consider what gender refers to. Gender is best defined as a way of classifying people based on socially agreed distinctions that are associated with male and female anatomy (gender history 153). Gender differentiation is evident in all societies and in particular in Australia with men and women seen to take on different social roles (gender 384). This has resulted in a significantly unequal spread of life chances (gender 384). Thus creating a category of analysis that inequalities flow from (gender history 154). Differences in opportunity between men and women therefore become evident. This historically established prejudice against women. However, the women’s liberation movement in the 1960’s and 1970’s broke barriers with women gaining more power in respect to education and employment (gender 383). Despite such breakthroughs, elements of gender inequality can still be seen in Australian society. This is interesting as most Australian’s have an assumption that we are an egalitarian society that does not encourage injustice and believes everyone should have a ‘fair go’ (collective identity 167). Through the exploration of the Australian labour force and harassment, violence and discrimination towards women we can see that gender equality is growing, but still evident, in Australian society.
Throughout the history of the world, discrimination in all forms has been a constant struggle, whether it is race, gender, religion, appearance or anything else that makes one person different from another, it is happening every day. One significant discrimination problem that is affecting many women takes place in the work place. As of recently the gender wage gap has become a major topic for discussion. The gender wage gap is the average difference between men and women aggregated hourly earnings. Women who are equally trained and educated, and with the same experience are getting paid way less than men. In 2015, female full time workers earned eighty cents for every dollar earned by men.
The first thing that factors in is that women are more likely to work in lower paying jobs including: retail trade, leisure and hospitality. There are not very many women who work in the three jobs with the highest wages: information services, mining and logging, and utilities (“Gender Pay Gap: Recent Trends”). According to the Council of Economic Advisors, “women are also slightly less likely than men to have access to paid leave and, perhaps as a result, are slightly more likely to take leave without pay.” Discrimination is another factor. Women may be influenced which job to choose base on discrimination, and it can cause women to leave their position (“Gender Pay Gap: Recent Trends”). According to the Council of Economic Advisors, there are less women who are receiving science and math degrees even though, in 2013, women earned 57 percent of all bachelor’s degree, 35 percent of which were in science, technology, engineering, and math fields. The level of education does not help the wage gap either, no matter what level of education women have there is still a pay gap (Dishman). The Council of Economic Advisors also says that “in general, women, even highly-educated women, are less likely to negotiate their first job offer than men. But even when women do negotiate, if the norms of negotiation and salary expectations are not transparent, they are likely to receive less than men.” A survey from
Further data shows that in Woman’s lifetime, she will earn 77% of what a man will earn. However, there are controllable factors, such as job position, race, job industry and other factors, which affect the Gender Pay Gap. For instance, the US Department of Labor found that when such factors were considered, the gap ...
A number of factors have contributed to the gap between men’s and women’s wages. These include: occupational segregation of women into low paying jobs; lower levels of unionization for women and attitudinal barriers that have kept women from achieving equality in the workplace and undervaluation for women’s work.
One cannot begin the discussion of gender pay gap without defining it. Simply put, gender pay gap is the inequality between men and women wages. Gender pay gap is a constant international problem, in which women are paid, on average, less than that of their male counterpart. As to if gender pay gap still exist, its exactness fluctuates depending on numerous factors such as professional status, country and regional location, gender, and age. In regards to gender, in some cases, both men and women have stated that the gap does not exist. Due to various countries initiatives to shrink the wage inequality between men and women wages in the work force, the gap has narrowed, respectively, which may have helped form such opinion. However, stating that the gender pay gap does not exist in today’s society, anywhere, is completely unlikely. Seeing that the gap has loosened its grasp in the working world, in other countries, the gap between pay has widen or remained stagnant. One cannot help but wonder why the gap remains consistent even with such substantial progress made in countries where the gap has decreased.
Today in the United States, men make more than women in various sectors, including education and other trades favoring women workers. The gap gets bigger when comparing the wages earned by men to those of women in jobs favoring men workers such as construction or other physically demanding jobs. Women are less likely to work those jobs, therefor; men have the advantage of having more experience and get paid better. In addition, employers would rather hire a man instead of a woman because they believe that a man will be able to sustain the difficulty of the job and work longer hours which crate a disadvantage for women because they are unable to gain experience and become skilled in that certain field. Gender pay gap based on this information is explained as the result of the discrimination of employers toward the feminine sex in terms of pay, which discourage them to work certain jobs leading to create a bigger gap due to the lack of