The Lies Abbott Tells - Part Thirteen

THE LIE

we are all totally committed to trying to ensure genuine and complete equality between men and women...this is a nation which has smashed just about every glass ceiling...

[Australian Prime Minister and self-appointed Minister for Women Tony Abbott, Address To The International Women's Day Parliamentary Breakfast, March 2014]

THE FACTS

On 24 February 2014 the Abbott Government made submissions to the Fair Work Commission Equal Remuneration Case arguing against "comparative wage justice" and the issuing of an "equal remuneration order" in redressing any gender-based undervaluation of the work of female employees in the early childcare sector.

New figures released today by the Australian Bureau of Statistics  show that, on average, full-time working women’s earnings are 17.1% less per week than full-time working men’s earnings (a difference that equates to $262.50 per week). [Workplace Gender Equality Agency, 20 February 2014]

...according to the Workplace Gender Equality Agency, “a significant proportion of the gender pay gap is unexplained”, and discrimination remains a factor...

Pay inequality and income gaps between men and women increase over time and become wider in older age. When we look at lifetime earnings, across every educational level, women fare more poorly than men.

In their 2012 report for AMP.NATSEM, Smart Australians: Education and Innovation in Australia, the authors found that based on the current figures the lifetime earnings gap between men and women with a bachelors degree was $1.26 million, with men earning $3.66 million compared to women’s $2.4 million (see Figure 2).

A woman aged 25 years with postgraduate qualifications can expect to earn two-thirds of her male counterpart’s lifetime earnings and, on average, she will have lower lifetime earnings than a man with Year 12 qualifications – $2.49 million and $2.55 million respectively.

Women’s earning prospects have actually decreased since a similar analysis was conducted in 2009.

Using data and dollars from 2006, the report found that the gender gaps in lifetime earnings across educational levels are even greater where there are children, and that men with a bachelor degree with children earned almost twice the lifetime earnings of women in the same category. [The Australia Institute, What’s Choice Got To Do With It? - Women’s lifetime financial disadvantage and the superannuation gender pay gap, July 2013]

According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics in November 2013, full time female adult ordinary time average weekly earnings for all industries was $1,270.50 and full time male adult ordinary time average weekly earnings for all industries was $1,532.10

Men still dominate in senior positions, even in industry categories with a high concentration of females in the workforce such as “health care and social assistance”.

Men also dominate in the full-time employment category for “all industries”.

Note: All graphs found at the Australian Government Workplace Gender Equality Agency.