House debates

Monday, 1 August 2022

Private Members' Business

Gender Pay Gap

6:35 pm

Photo of Kate ThwaitesKate Thwaites (Jagajaga, Australian Labor Party) Share this | | Hansard source

I move:

That this House:

(1) acknowledges the most recent research from the Workplace Gender Equality Agency showing that the gender pay gap in Australia impacts women across every industry, in every occupation, and at every age and life stage;

(2) recognises that Australian women continue to be left behind in relation to the gender pay gap;

(3) commends the government's commitment to closing the gender pay gap, including:

(a) establishing an independent Women's Economic Security Taskforce to help inform budget investments in advancing economic equality;

(b) making gender pay equity an object of the Fair Work Act 2009;

(c) requiring large companies to publish their gender pay gaps; and

(d) backing a real pay rise for aged care workers, who are overwhelmingly women, and look to provide backing for similar industries; and

(4) notes that there remains significant work to do to end gender inequality, and that initiatives such as reform to paid parental leave are worthy of consideration in pursuit of this aim.

It has not been a good decade for Australian women when it comes to the gender pay gap under the previous Liberal-National governments. In fact, the latest research released just a few weeks ago by KPMG shows that the gender pay gap in Australia is now worth almost $1 billion a week, or $51 billion a year. The report shows women are paid, on average, $2.55 an hour less than men. Of course, this has serious consequences for women at every stage of their working lives. It means that too many women who have spent their lives balancing work with caregiving for children, for elderly relatives and for others are facing older age in poverty and are at risk of homelessness. We do know that caregiving is a real factor in the gender pay gap and where that gap exists. Recent data from the Workplace Gender Equality Agency shows that the gender pay gap widens when women turn 35, an age when many women are caring for children, with women earning $7.78 for every $10 earned by their male counterparts. This disparity worsens over the next 10 years. This is one of the main reasons why there's more work to be done on how we support women to balance work and family in this country.

Australia's Paid Parental Leave scheme is a great Labor legacy. It's given women—particularly women in low-paid and insecure work—the opportunity to spend more time caring for their children. But it's now been more than a decade since my predecessor, the former member for Jagajaga, Jenny Macklin, introduced that game-changing reform, and it's time for an update. We do need a scheme that supports women—and men—to take time out of the workforce. Evidence from overseas shows us that the best way to do this is through a use-it-or-lose-it provision, so that we start to rebalance work and caring roles in our society, so it's not just women who take time out of our workplace and so that it's not taken as a given that a woman will interrupt her working life for an extended period of time—a year when her baby's born, working part-time until her children are eight—while absolutely nothing changes for men. Research from the OECD shows that those countries that include a non-transferable portion of leave, which must be taken by a father in their PPL schemes, have a higher uptake of men taking leave than those that don't. The research also shows us that, where dads participate more in child care and family life, children are better off and dads report greater life satisfaction. So this is a win-win-win, and it's an area that I hope our government will be able to act on over our term.

The previous government failed to close the gender pay gap. As a result, we have a massive wasted opportunity in this country. We have some of the most educated women in the world. And yet we have some of the lowest rates of women's participation in the workforce in the world. What a waste. Australian women are getting educated and are ready to work, and then they're coming up against a system that doesn't pay them as much as their male counterparts and actively discriminates against them when it comes to caring. We can do so much better.

I'm so proud to be part of a Labor government that will be different; that will do this work; that will make gender pay equity an object of the Fair Work Act; that will establish an independent women's economic security task force to help inform our investments in economic equality; that will strengthen the ability and capacity for the Fair Work Commission to order pay increases for workers in low-paid industries, such as aged care, most of which are dominated by women; that will introduce legislation that requires large companies to publicly report their gender pay gap, prohibit pay secrecy clauses and give employees the right to disclose their pay if they want to; and that will act on the gender pay gap within the Australian public service.

These are game-changing reforms. These are the things that will help Australian women catch up. That will start to close that gender pay gap, and that will allow us to look as a community and a society at how we balance roles across work and family so that both men and women get these opportunities to be productive parts of our workforce but also to be the people who care for our families, our children and our elderly. There is value in this work as well. As a community, we must make sure that we value women's contribution in the workforce and that women are paid properly for that contribution in the workforce so that they don't end up in poverty.

Photo of Rebekha SharkieRebekha Sharkie (Mayo, Centre Alliance) Share this | | Hansard source

Is the motion seconded?

6:40 pm

Photo of Louise Miller-FrostLouise Miller-Frost (Boothby, Australian Labor Party) Share this | | Hansard source

I second the motion and reserve my right to speak.

Photo of Jenny WareJenny Ware (Hughes, Liberal Party) Share this | | Hansard source

I rise to support the motion. This parliament needs to move quickly to address and implement the efforts of the Workplace Gender Equality Agency in consultation with the previous coalition government in striving towards the elimination of gender discrimination, particularly the gender pay gap.

In March 2022, the previous coalition government released its review of the Workplace Gender Equality Act 2012, which it had committed to in its Women's Budget Statement of the previous year. This review sought feedback from across the community to address workplace gender equality, while, importantly, also considering the needs of employers. The review heard from businesses, employers, employee organisations, women's organisations and academics through roundtables and written submissions. This review now comes at a critical time. There is real momentum for change towards achieving gender equality in Australian workplaces.

Under the previous coalition government, wages for women employed full time did increase by 20 per cent over the past five years, as against the wages of Australian men, which increased by 15 per cent. Nevertheless, the gender pay gap still exists. On average, Australian women are earning $255 a week less than Australian men. This figure is worse in the 45-to-64 age group, where, on average, women are earning $40,000 per year—$800 per week—less than Australian men.

Although Australian women enrol in and complete higher education and enter the labour market at a higher proportion than men, they are still substantially less likely to work full time across all age groups and less likely to reach the highest earning levels. This is because the predominant responsibility of family and caring duties falls on women. I know this from personal experience. I temporarily stepped away from my career—a legal career—in order to raise my twin sons full time. Even 16 years ago, when my sons were born, I battled against the perception in my workplace that it was not appropriate for a senior lawyer to work in a part-time capacity. Unfortunately, this story was all too common amongst my peers.

There has been significant workplace attitudinal change towards flexible working over the past 16 years. I have been a lucky—I shouldn't even say 'lucky'—recipient of that and have managed to work part time for a number of years. I've also encouraged, where possible, my female—and male—employees to work flexibly. However, as Australians, we still have a long journey to travel.

I recommend the report. The report includes six substantial recommendations, starting with conducting a pay gap analysis, which has been undertaken. It then talks about introducing a robust, gender-neutral paid parental leave policy in order that both males and females can avail themselves of looking after young children and returning to the workplace. The report also talks about normalising flexible working arrangements. It particularly mentions that we often have a tendency in the workplace to say, 'She only works part-time,' or, 'He only works four days a week.' We need to remove the 'only' from that conversation and normalise flexible working.

The fourth recommendation is to rethink and redesign part-time roles for managers. Often it is very hard, in many industries, for managers to obtain part-time and flexible work. The report also recommends inclusive recruitment and promotion practices.

The work is just beginning with this report, commissioned by the former coalition government, and all levels of government, business, and the community need to work together collectively to narrow the gender pay gap. It is particularly important that the private sector works in partnership with the three levels of government in order to drive change, as the private sector remains the largest employer of Australian women. An investment in gender equality is beneficial to employers as much as employees, as it can attract and retain talent. This is particularly relevant in 2022. (Time expired)

6:45 pm

Photo of Sally SitouSally Sitou (Reid, Australian Labor Party) Share this | | Hansard source

Before I was elected to this parliament, I had envisioned a career for myself researching and advocating for greater gender and cultural diversity in Australia's leadership, working on issues around the gender and ethnic pay gap. It was an interest sparked during my time working at the University of Sydney, where I met Professors Marian Baird and Rae Cooper and Dr Meraiah Foley. They spent years—decades—researching how we can improve the lives of working women. Professor Marian Baird was a leading figure pushing for the first paid parental leave scheme to be introduced in Australia. It was a scheme that I was able to access when I had my son in 2016. It meant I was able to stay home with him during those critical years of his development.

Professors Cooper and Baird established the Women, Work and Policy Research Group at the University of Sydney in 2006. Since then they, along with a group of extraordinary researchers and academics, have been at the forefront of research on women, work and policy in Australia and the Asia-Pacific region. Much of their work has centred on the gender pay gap.

The gender pay gap is currently 13.8 per cent, and it has hovered around that mark for the past four years. While the gap is trending down, it still results in women earning an average of $255 a week less than men. When you factor in part-time work, the gender pay gap for all employees widens to 30.6 per cent—or, in real terms, $483 a week less than men. The gap still impacts women across every industry in every occupation at every life stage. What is most concerning for me is that part of the reason the gap persists is our society's undervaluation and therefore underappreciation of those working in the care economy: teachers, early educators, aged-care workers and nurses. They are often women, and they are doing some of our most important work—looking after our kids, the elderly, and our sick. Yet, because these jobs have sometimes been viewed as 'women's work', we don't pay them nearly enough for the contribution they make to our society. What's more, on top of being undervalued and underpaid, these jobs are increasingly insecure.

This government, I'm proud to say, is determined to continue to close this gender pay gap, and there are several mechanisms to do so, which the member for Jagajaga has submitted in this motion. The first is the establishment of an independent women's economic security task force. By making smart, targeted investments, such a task force will help promote women's economic security. The second is making gender pay equity a legislative object of the Fair Work Act. This amendment will require the Fair Work Commission to decide cases with gender pay equity in mind. Third, you can't fix what you can't see. So, transparency is essential for fixing the gender pay gap problem. The Labor government will require large companies to publish their gender pay gap data, allowing people to access pay-gap information online so that women everywhere can make an informed choice about the company they'd like to join.

Fourth is backing a real pay rise for aged-care workers and similarly feminised workforces. Just as we backed a minimum wage increase, this government wants to back traditionally female industries in its efforts to secure higher wages and narrow that pay gap. For me, critical to narrowing the gender pay gap is the availability of good, quality and affordable child care. The expert panel of the New South Wales Women's Economic Opportunities Review, chaired by Sam Mostyn AO, underscored the importance of high-quality, accessible child care in increasing women's participation and success in the workforce. The evidence is clear. The availability of affordable child care has a positive impact on women's employment through an increase in women's workforce participation and average weekly hours worked. By making early childhood education high quality, affordable and accessible, we set kids up with the best possible platform in life.

I wanted to use this speech to pay tribute to the extraordinary women who have worked so hard to ensure my life as a working woman was made that little bit easier.

6:50 pm

Photo of Zali SteggallZali Steggall (Warringah, Independent) Share this | | Hansard source

This is an important motion. Gender pay equity is something that we really shouldn't still be talking about in 2022, but, sadly, we are. So I thank the member for Jagajaga for bringing forward this important motion. It is very disappointing that the most recent research from the Workplace Gender Equality Agency shows that the gender pay gap in Australia impacts women across every industry in every occupation at every age and life stage. The current overall national gender pay gap is 13.8 per cent. Women, on average, earn $255 less per week than men. Adding the part-time workforce, the gender pay gap for all employees widens to 30.6 per cent. The largest gaps are in professional, scientific and technical services, health care, and financial and insurance services—some of the biggest employment sectors in Warringah.

In 2019, the International Labour Organization observed that, globally, despite substantial progress in women's employment, there had not been any meaningful narrowing of the gender pay gap at work for the past 20 years. That is just outrageous. Globally, the gender pay gap is approximately 20 per cent. So, for every dollar earnt by a man, a woman would earn 80c. Gender pay gap contributes to long-term inequity and leads to the situation we have of women over 55 being the fastest growing group experiencing homelessness. Low wages drive low superannuation contribution. Time out of the workforce also stalls superannuation and career progression. So all these problems are interlinked, and it all starts with the gender pay gap. And, from there, the inequity continues and grows.

We know the gender pay gap also contributes to women being more vulnerable to the impacts of climate change and other aspects. Seventy per cent of people living in conditions of poverty globally are women. Around the world, women have limited access to, and control of, environmental goods and services. They have negligible participation in decision-making, and they are not involved in the distribution of environmental management benefits. Consequently, women are less able to confront climate change—the very thing that impacts them so.

A constituent who came to me with concern about gender pay disparity said she has suffered at one of the largest companies in the country. Her story is one of complex adversity, including surviving domestic violence and enduring mental health impacts. Her pay negotiations took place at a time where her circumstances were rapidly changing—escaping domestic violence while she was supporting her child as a single mother. None of this context or circumstance was taken into account by her employer. My constituent is in a management role. But, due to her employer's recent cost cutting, any career progression opportunities have been removed. She raised her concerns with management and was told she should have negotiated better. Her employer does release obligatory reports into company gender equality but actually then redacts the real figures and actually doesn't act upon what those reports show, which is that the pay gender inequity is there. Legislation to ensure companies are acting adequately on gender pay and equity disparity is urgently required, because giving it lip service is simply not good enough anymore. So I welcome the commitment of the new government to improved gender pay equity, with budget investments, legislative change and change to care economy wages. But more work is needed, including improving paid parental leave policy to incentivise greater uptake by men and greater participation in unpaid care work by men. Australia has one of the least-generous paid parental leave schemes in the world. It is highly gendered and discriminatory, in considering only women's income in the calculation of eligibility. Perinatal discrimination is the top discrimination complaint in Australian workplaces. One in two mothers and one in four fathers report that they have experienced discrimination in the workplace in the lead-up to the birth of a child, according to the Australian Human Rights Commission. Improving childcare affordability and accessibility is long overdue. We talk of skills shortages and how small businesses are struggling to find the workforce they need, but we are not maximising the potential of the Australian population. We simply must address these gender equity issues.

6:55 pm

Photo of Louise Miller-FrostLouise Miller-Frost (Boothby, Australian Labor Party) Share this | | Hansard source

I'm very pleased to speak on this important motion put forward by the member for Jagajaga on the gender pay gap. This is not a new phenomenon. Indeed, it's something we've reckoned with for a long time as a society. On this day in 1984, the Sex Discrimination Act came into force. That was the year that I finished year 12. Not enough has changed in the last 40 years. This is not something that is going to remedy itself of its own accord. It's a problem that is persistent, with consequences and harms that go well beyond the headline figures.

It is not simply that many women take home less income than their male counterparts, although that's an obvious injustice. The same pay for the same job is not the norm in this country. The gender pay gap reflects a deep and structural inequality. Women are paid less than men for the same jobs straight out of university or in base-level jobs. Men are more likely to be tapped for a promotion. Women are more likely to be penalised for their caring duties—a perfect storm of gender disadvantage.

But there's more. It is perhaps more obvious in the way that we value and reward different types of work in this country. During the pandemic, we found out who our essential workers really are. They are our nurses; our aged-care workers; the retail workers who put up with people squabbling in supermarket aisles over essential items; our teachers; and our childhood educators. I was lucky enough to spend some time with some dedicated childcare workers recently with the Minister for Early Childhood Education, Anne Aly, when she came to the Warradale Community Children's Centre at Parkholme. Some of these women had worked there a decade or more, dedicated to ensuring a positive experience and growth opportunities for the children involved in their care—our next generation.

One thing all of these industries have in common is that the essential work undertaken in them is predominantly done by women. The so-called feminised industries are renowned for low pay rates and insecure work. These workers are not rewarded in a way that recognises just how essential they are to the functioning of our society. What does it say about our community that those professions that look after our next generation, that are responsible for their education and growth, that look after us when we are sick or older or vulnerable or that are responsible for ensuring that we can get what we need to eat and survive are so low paid? At the times that we as Australians are most dependent on the work of others for our wellbeing, those people are not financially valued.

That's why I was so proud when the Albanese government advocated for a minimum wage rise in line with inflation, and it was delivered. Two point eight million people benefited from this. Sixty per cent of them were women. And it's why we will continue to fight to improve the wages and conditions of workers in these highly feminised industries.

When it comes to the gender pay gap, the ramifications are sometimes hidden, but they're ongoing. We see this in the fact that older women are the fastest-growing group of people who are likely to experience homelessness. I've seen it countless times in my prior work: women getting to retirement, losing employment or experiencing a family breakdown and very rapidly finding themselves with no way to pay the rent or the mortgage—and I note that it's currently National Homelessness Week. This is often compounded by the fact that, as well as being lower paid, women are statistically more likely to work in casual, part-time or insecure employment. They too often have very low superannuation balances and little savings as a result of that lifelong gender pay inequity. That's why I'm proud to stand here as a member of the Albanese Labor government, which is truly committed to closing the gender pay gap—establishing an independent women's economic security task force to help inform budget investments in advancing economic equality, making gender pay equity an object of the Fair Work Act 2009, requiring large companies to publish their gender pay gaps, and backing a real pay rise for aged-care workers, who are overwhelmingly women, and looking to provide backing for similar industries.

It's indefensible that in this day and age we shouldn't have the same pay for the same job, and an appropriate valuation of the so-called 'feminised workforces'. Labor is committed to eliminating the gender pay gap.

7:00 pm

Photo of Monique RyanMonique Ryan (Kooyong, Independent) Share this | | Hansard source

I thank the honourable member for Jagajaga for bringing this chamber's attention to this important issue of gender pay equity. In my first speech, last week, I noted that the population of Kooyong boasts an above-average proportion of women—all of whom are above-average women—which means that the impacts of the gender pay gap are very keenly felt by my constituency.

The gender pay gap measures the overall inequity that women experience in each industry and across the national workforce. This set of figures is obviously based on a large amount of data, but it's also emblematic of the inequities and disadvantages faced by women, which are much harder to quantify. For instance, in 2022 women make up more than 50 per cent of our workforce but only 20 per cent of CEOs. This figure isn't particularly alarming because we're especially worried about CEOs—although we do want to see gender parity all the way to the top—but because it tells a bigger, more complex story that is way too familiar for working women. It's the story of gender-based discrimination in hiring, in promotions and in opportunities to progress within a company or a department. It's a story about women facing greater barriers to reach every level of seniority along the way to being a CEO.

Much of the gender-based discrimination in hiring and in opportunities for career progression is underpinned by the belief that female employees are burdened with caring and domestic labour outside of their professional work—to a far greater degree than male employers. And the reality is that they are. The most recent census found precisely what every census in the last 15 years has found, which is that women disproportionately shoulder the burden of domestic labour, with the average woman working up to 15 hours each week to keep the house running and its occupants cared for, and the average man putting in under five hours each week. It's no wonder that fewer women are climbing the leadership ladder and fewer women are present at CEO levels when many of us are effectively forced to work a second part-time job.

Women are hired below their proficiency and then promoted less frequently, due to gender bias and discrimination. What's more, once in the job they're paid less than their male counterparts across their industry and comparative industries. In the most recent financial year men earned, on average, $25,000 more than women. This extraordinary figure isn't an anomaly. Women work just as hard as men but earn significantly less than men every year of their working life. That yearly financial disadvantage accumulates over decades to create massive comparable deficits in savings at the time that women retire.

It's not just a lifetime of earning less than men that sets women up for greater hardship in retirement. Women tend to spend many years out of the paid workforce, working unpaid to raise the next generation, and during this period of their working lives they are of course not paid any superannuation.

Kooyong is one of a handful of electorates with a superannuation gap. That is, the disparity in the superannuation held by men and women is more than 33 per cent. This means that the average retired woman in Kooyong has just two-thirds of the wealth that her male counterpart retires with, despite working just as hard for just as long. After a lifetime of earning less money, spending more time in unpaid domestic work and accruing less superannuation, it's no wonder that the largest and fastest-growing group of people facing homelessness are women aged more than 50.

As I campaigned to represent Kooyong here in parliament, I was unequivocal that superannuation must be appended to maternity leave and to other care related leave as an essential step towards pay equity for women in retirement. Furthermore, our government needs to show leadership in its promotion of equality, respect and safety for women at home, in the workplace and in the community. Empowering women's workplace participation contributes not just to economic security and financial independence for each woman but also to the economic growth and prosperity of our nation.

I echo the member for Jagajaga's sentiments that there remains significant work to do to end gender inequality, and I look forward to working collaboratively with members across the parliament in the coming years to achieve parity of income, wealth and financial security for women.

Photo of Sharon ClaydonSharon Claydon (Newcastle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | | Hansard source

There being no further speakers for this motion, the debate is adjourned, and the resumption of the debate will be made an order of the day for the next sitting.

Federation Chamber adjourned at 19:06