Equal Pay In Australia Essay

Many people are often surprised to hear that Australia does not have a national Bill of Rights. Although two Australian states have adopted their own state based human rights laws. Although these laws are not specifically women’s rights laws, but these laws generally cover human rights that are similar to Gender equality. Both states outline the rights to non-discrimination and equality.

Women in Australia have been fighting toward the right of equal pay since the early 1900's. The principal for equal pay for equal work has been recognised as a human right in the Universal Declaration of Rights in 1948. " The Gender Pay Gap is defined as the relative difference in the average gross hourly earnings of women and men within the economy as a whole." Australia is performing

poorly in income quality compared to other OECD countries. It released the shocking results, that the pay gap has increased since 2004, women are earning earn 17.3 per cent less than their male counter parts. "Women do more of the unpaid work, both in the home and the community, but less of the paid work. They also receive less money in their paid work. So over their life course they are actually putting in more hours in total but ending up with a lower income, " -Marian Baird

Today we will be investigating into the following points:
• Male managers paid annual average $343,269, females $244,569
• Data from survey of 12,000 companies and 4 million employees
• Men getting more pay and much higher bonuses
• Pay gap worse in female-dominated industries
• Report shows financial disadvantage of woman starts early
• Young girls who get pocket money get 11 per cent less than boys
• Women who graduate with a bachelor degree can expect to earn $1.5 million less over a lifetime
• Women make up 42 per cent of the workforce and earn 17.3 per cent less
• Australia has an "adjusted" gender pay gap of 3.9pc
• Of that gap, 39pc is "unexplained"
• Data shows primary cause of gender pay gap not workplace discrimination, but wider "sorting" of men and women into jobs that pay differently
• Extra four years accounts for paid and unpaid care work
• Gender inequality costs women in poor countries $US9 trillion a year
• Gender pay gap has increased since 2004 in Australia
• More than half of Australian women feel unsafe walking alone at night
• Australian women are paid 17.3 per cent less than male counterparts

In 2011, The commonwealth government enacted a law- the Human Rights (Parliamentary Scrutiny) Act 2011- which sought to improve human rights in Australia.

It did this by creating the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights. This committee was tasked with examining key laws and proposed laws to see if they fit in with morals of the UN doctrine of Human Rights. The Australian Government has developed a National Human Rights Action Plan. It outlines the measures needed to improve and protect the Human rights of Australian Citizens, including the rights of a

women.

At the federal level in the Government there are anti-discrimination laws that make it unlawful for a person to discriminate on the basis of race, religion, gender, ect. A major act is the Sex discrimination act of 1984. The act makes it illegal to discriminate on the basis of;
¥ sex;
¥ marital status;
¥ pregnancy or potential pregnancy;
¥ breastfeeding; and family responsibilities.

It is an important act because it outlines the importance in decreasing and eliminating discrimination against a woman.

The Workplace Gender Equality Act of 2012, aims to improve gender equality amongst Australian workplaces.