Research reveals pessimism for achieving equal pay rates

New research results from Diversity Council Australia (DCA) and EOWA reveal a large portion of Australians are pessimistic about the likelihood of women receiving equal wages to men, with the pay gap between genders now standing at 18%.

The findings also reveal that a large majority of Australians admitting there is wage inequality between men and women.

Four in five believe that the average weekly earnings of women working full-time are less than what men working full-time are earning.

Alarmingly, results also highlight the misunderstanding of what equal pay rights actually mean, with most Australians believing the notion that equal pay means equal pay for the doing the same job rather than work of equal value.

Acting director of research at DCA, Lisa Annese, said that the findings demonstrated the importance of continuing the national debate about pay equity and what it really means.

"The findings show that around two thirds of Australians wrongly think that pay equity means equal pay for men and women who are doing the same job. Just 14% of people agreed with the correct idea that pay equity means equal pay for men and women doing different but equivalent jobs.

"We need to be focusing our efforts on achieving pay equity for women who are doing work of equal value to men, not necessarily the exact same job," Annese said.

Results also reveal that men are less likely to feel there is a pay gap amongst genders. Twenty-three per cent of men believe women earn the same as them, compared to just 9% of women.

"The fact is that the gap between male and female average full-time weekly earnings does exist and is currently almost 18%," Annese said.

A positive finding of the survey revealed that just over 76% of Australians agree that steps should be taken to close the pay gap between men and women.

"There is a firm belief in the possibility of change and it's important therefore to keep the momentum to make it happen," Annese said.

Acting EOWA director Mairi Steele encouraged Australian businesses to use Equal Pay Day on 4 September  to focus on the gender pay gap in their organisation.

"Equal Pay Day marks the 66 extra days that women have to work after the end of the financial year to earn the same as men. This is because Australian woman on average still earn 18% less than men," Steele said.

Steele pointed to recent reports from NATSEM and KPMG showing that the biggest contributing factor to the pay gap is simply being a woman or, in other words, discrimination.

"Pay inequity is a community problem and the more people who understand its causes and the financial consequences for business, for women and for their families, the more chance we have of eliminating it. EOWA's free online resources can help business understand and remedy this situation," she said.

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