Katy Gallagher (ACT, Australian Labor Party, Minister for the Public Service) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Pratt for the question. As she points out in her question to me, WGEA has today released important new data indicating how part-time work is affecting women's economic equality. WGEA's annual employer census showed that women were more likely to work part time than men. In the survey, 30 per cent of women worked part time, compared to 11 per cent of men. The WGEA data also confirmed that seven per cent of management roles were held by part-time employees. WGEA said that the data pointed to what it called what a part-time promotion cliff for women.

Australia has one of the highest rates of women in part-time employment in the OECD, behind the Netherlands, Switzerland and Japan. A key driver of these different patterns of employment is the significant and long-term adjustments women typically make to their paid employment following the arrival of children, while at the same time men's employment patterns remain largely unchanged. Working part time means women's incomes are lower and they retire with less super and savings. This contributes to the gender earnings gap, which still sits at 13 per cent nationally. This data demonstrates that we have a long way to go to achieve economic equality for women, with women still taking on the majority of care roles in households, which has flow-on impacts on their workforce participation. There must be greater recognition that a rich career often includes times of working differently, including to care for children, and this should not be incompatible with advancement, recognition or working in senior roles. Families should be supported to share care more equally, enabling both parents to have time to care for and connect with their children. That is why our investment in child care and our parental leave reforms—which provide each parent four weeks of reserve leave from by 2026, when the full scheme is implemented—encourages that shared care.