2022 Platform: Gender Equality: Closing the Gender Pay Gap

Please note that this is the ‘Gender Equality’ platform we took to the 2022 Election. Please refer to our current platform for our plans for the upcoming election.

Written by Katelyn Clarke, Gender Equality campaigner

An update: See here for a podcast by Alison Pennington from the Centre for Future Work at the Australia Institute on the gender pay gulf !

The gender pay gap is the difference between the average earnings of women and men in the workforce. It is multi-dimensional, reflecting the variety of social and economic factors that lead to gender inequality in the workplace and women’s reduced earning capacity over a lifetime, according to the Workplace Gender Equality Agency .

The Workplace Gender Equality Agency and Australian Bureau of Statistics data both indicate a gender pay gap that favours full-time working men over full-time working women, in every Australian industry and occupational category .

As of November 2020, the gender pay gap is 13.4% , equating, for full-time working women, on average, $242.90 less per week than full time working men. The gap is down from a high of 18.5% in 2014 but we have a long way to go to get to equal.

Over a lifetime, women will earn less, be less likely to advance as far in their career and accumulate less superannuation and savings than men, meaning they are more likely to live in poverty in their old age.

Straight up gender discrimination is a factor. Occupational and industrial segregation, years not working due to interruptions caring for family, the ‘motherhood penalty’, part time and unpaid work are all factors.

Closing the gender pay gap means going beyond just ensuring equal pay.

For International Women’s Day, we took a closer look at the awards and agreements, maintained by the Fair Work Commission, that determine wages in Australia and it is clear that we can reduce the gender pay gap through our systems and structures of wage-setting . Here’s how:

These changes should result in an increase in the minimum wage in female-dominated awards and directly raise the wages of the lowest earners in the workforce, the majority being women.

They should directly reduce the gender pay gap among award employees and have a measurable impact on the overall gender pay gap because of their indirect influence on enterprise agreements.

At the very least, these measures will provide Australians, and women in particular, with the assurance that systematic discrimination in a large component of Australia’s wage setting system is being addressed.

Photo by engin akyurt on Unsplash