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 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.
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?
Why is the extremely important work of early childcare and teaching not valued as highly as banking or mine working?
This, I think is one of the biggest issues. But, it’s not caused by employers discriminating against women. It’s also not something individual companies can solve. I think it’s an inherent flaw in our capitalist society. Caring for rich people could earn you a decent living, but if you’re caring for the people who really need it… Most of them can’t pay what it’s really worth.
Also, if there’s people willing to do the job at minimum wage, then there’s going to be CEOs willing to hire them and take all the profit for themselves / shareholders.
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.
So, my question “why” was rhetorical. The point is that fundamentally, the money an industry gets represents its value to society, and society clearly does not value the sort of work that is associated with women as much as it does “men’s work”.
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!
Yeah i read that article, Brisbane Broncos Rugby league club has a massive gender pay gap of 66 cents. Every dollar a man makes on average the woman makes 33 cents.
But we gotta figure 18 of those men are players earning stupid money
Then the women are maybe coaches physics drs etc
The whole article is ridiculous, just riding the coattails of the gender pay gap.
They went on to say the median pay gap coe all jobs is 12 cents. That’s not really that bad to be honest. A great deal of improvement.
Then they cherry picked Sydney woman’s Ultrasound company where the pay gap is 88 cents between men and women.
I can only assume the woman are receptionists etc and the men Drs.
Surly it’s not 88 cents different between male and female Drs
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.
Nothing really. I doubt that’s an issue either.
Same in my industry. Rarely do any women apply.
I think calling it a pay gap is fairly disingenuous, really its about apparent descrimination. We should work ti eliminate descrimination while still hiring the best person for the job, otherwise you end up going the other way and you’re back at square one.
So the man is only left with 22 cents??? 😯
I’ll see myself out…