This Monday was ‘Equal Pay Day’ in Australia. What does this mean? Does it mean it’s the day that we finally achieved equal pay for everyone? Unfortunately, no! The occasion marks how many extra days beyond the end of the financial year that Australian women must work to earn the same as men.
An Australian woman has to work more than 50 days into the next financial year to earn the same as the average man did last financial year. This is a slight improvement on last year, when the national figure was 56 days. The Federal Government says this means that the gender pay gap is the lowest on record. The Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, said “We came to Government with a commitment to help close the gender pay gap and that’s exactly what we’re seeing.”
But a pay gap of 11.5 per cent is still not good enough. And a further breakdown of the figures shows that in Western Australia, the pay gap is a frightening 21.7 per cent, meaning that women there must work an extra 101 days!
Carolyn Dunbar, Lead, VTHC Women's Team, told SafetyNet, "Ending gender based violence and discrimination at work, providing for the shared care of children, older people and the community and improving the wages of conditions of work in industries that have been undervalued like education, care and social work is needed. While there is much more work to do, the pay gap is closing due to women in union tirelessly campaigning for better wages, safety and respect at work as we have seen in industries like early childhood education and aged care.
The Minister for Women, Kary Gallagher, said “Closing the gender pay gap is a key ambition of Working for Women: A Strategy for Gender Equality, because we know that it is both a driver and a result of inequality. We know there is still work to do and we will keep going.”
Read more: Gender pay gap drops to historic low | Prime Minister of Australia