Despite the breakthroughs made regarding women’s rights in the workplace throughout the 1970s, the issue surrounding pay inequity lingers on.
It is 2010…..so why are we stuck in the 1950s?
Unequal pay or “pay inequity” can be measured in two ways. First, as a direct comparison between a male and female employee doing the same work but earning a different salary, including penalty rates, overtime and bonuses.
Secondly, it is measured by the difference in pay between industry sectors with a greater value placed on some types of work compared with others.
Traditionally, industries with a majority of female workers have attracted lower pay rates than male-dominated industries.
This difference in “value” is partly historical, emanating from a time when women were not regarded as “breadwinners” nor welcome in most parts of the workforce. “Women’s work” was, and still is, a term used to downplay the value of women’s skills.
Male-dominated industries have also traditionally been more industrially organized, with better pay and conditions hard won through decades of negotiation, disputes and legal rulings.
These historic differences and attitudes are still reflected in the pay packets of women and practices of many workplaces today, resulting in a persistent wage gap that remains stuck at 17% in 2010, which equates to $1 million less over a lifetime.
The Australian Services Union (ASU) has launched a test case with Fair Work Australia to address the lower pay among community sector workers, a female-dominated sector.
These workers look after the homeless, the disabled, children at risk, the elderly and other vulnerable people in our society. Yet they are among the lowest paid workers in Australia, largely because their work has been historically viewed as “women’s work”.
The case will be the first to test the new equal pay provisions of the Fair Work Act and unions hope it will help establish an equal pay standard for other industries.
On the back of the historic test case, the ASU have initiated the Pay Up campaign (www.payup.org.au) urging Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard to properly fund the not-for-profit community sector, leading to a substantial rise in pay for workers who are too often left behind.
Some Facts:
• Women will retire with less than half the amount of savings in superannuation accounts than men.
• Community sector workers are paid up to 37 per cent less than those doing the same job in the public service and hospitals.
• Women have to work an average of 63 days more a year to earn the same income as males.
• An ‘equal pay for work of equal value’ test case was established in 1972. Pay equity still hasn’t been realised…38 years on!
• Go to the Pay Up campaign website (www.payup.org.au) and send a virtual “Kiss” to Julia Gillard.
• Follow the campaign on popular websites including Facebook and Twitter.
• Come to ASU’s Equal Pay Day of Action on June 10, 11am at Federation Square. For more info, go to http://www.asuvic.asn.au/doa_flyer_2010.pdf
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| DOA flyer 2010 v2 - white background for printing - with back info.pdf | 664.69 KB |
