this post was submitted on 03 Mar 2025
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38
Women earn 78 cents for every $1 men paid on average. (www.abc.net.au)
submitted 5 days ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
12 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

In short:

More than half of Australian companies have improved their gender pay gap, compared to last year. But for every $1 a man earns, women, on average, still only earn 78 cents.

The gender pay gap is not about "equal pay for equal work", but aims to quantify the difference between the average earnings of women and men in the workforce.

What's next?

Anyone can view the gender pay gaps at companies that employ more than 5 million Australian workers, and their plans to reduce the gap.

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[–] cynar 3 points 3 days ago

The Simpson's Paradox also comes into play here.

It is perfectly possible for 1 group to be (apparently) discriminated in the bulk data, while the reverse is happening in individual data. E.g. a university showing a male bias overall, yet each department shows neutral, or even a female bias.

This makes bulk patterns particularly troublesome to work with. Men and women want different things from work. Men are disproportionately discouraged from having a work life balance, while it's far more acceptable for women to not maximise their earning potential.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (1 children)

The gender pay gap is not about “equal pay for equal work”

Indeed, it seems to be primarily about making rage bait headlines.

Women work less hours on average, with considerably more working part time and those who work full time working less hours than men overall (so less overtime pay). What are you going to do to fix that gap, force women to work more? Between that and less women choosing to work in various higher paid and more physical/dangerous jobs (e.g. trades, mining) it's no wonder there's a difference.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 days ago (2 children)

It's about working out what cultural forces are causing women to work less and helping to equalise those. It's also about how jobs traditionally seen as female-dominated being paid less than male-dominated work. You say

less women choosing to work in various higher paid

I say

Why is the extremely important work of early childcare and teaching not valued as highly as banking or mine working?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 days ago

Why is the extremely important work of early childcare and teaching not valued as highly as banking or mine working?

This, I think is one of the biggest issues. But, it's not caused by employers discriminating against women. It's also not something individual companies can solve. I think it's an inherent flaw in our capitalist society. Caring for rich people could earn you a decent living, but if you're caring for the people who really need it... Most of them can't pay what it's really worth.

Also, if there's people willing to do the job at minimum wage, then there's going to be CEOs willing to hire them and take all the profit for themselves / shareholders.

[–] Noobnarski 3 points 4 days ago (1 children)

I don't think banking should be paid as highly as it does, but mine workers earn so much because they literally risk their lives at work.

The reason why bankers earn so much probably is because they work with huge amounts of money, so it's easier for them to demand a cut of it.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 days ago (1 children)

So, my question "why" was rhetorical. The point is that fundamentally, the money an industry gets represents its value to society, and society clearly does not value the sort of work that is associated with women as much as it does "men's work".

[–] Noobnarski 1 points 2 days ago

I don't think that the money that an industry gets represents it's value to society, not even close. I don't think that a CEO brings 1000 times more value than a normal worker.

What I really see happening is that every industry tries to take as much of everyones money as they can and if they are in a position where they can force us to do it, they will.

There is no fair wage distribution, not even among white men.

Women earning less money is just one of the symptoms in this ever more broken system where big corporations control more and more of our everyday lives.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 5 days ago (2 children)

I mean, where I work we've hired every female applicant we've ever had and we're still at around 98% male. I'm not sure what we could even do about it.

[–] Shou 1 points 3 days ago

Nothing really. I doubt that's an issue either.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 days ago

Same in my industry. Rarely do any women apply.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 5 days ago

I think calling it a pay gap is fairly disingenuous, really its about apparent descrimination. We should work ti eliminate descrimination while still hiring the best person for the job, otherwise you end up going the other way and you're back at square one.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 5 days ago

So the man is only left with 22 cents??? 😯

I'll see myself out...