Probing the Effects of the Australian System of Minimum Wages on the Gender Wage Gap

Abstract

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Workplace gender equality in the post-pandemic era: Where to next?

“…The disproportionate exposure of women to the risks associated with frontline work also underlined the persistent undervaluation of feminised industries and occupations. In Australia, women are disproportionately represented among workers earning the national minimum wage or modern award minima (Birch and Preston, 2020), which are 10% lower, on average, in industries and occupations where women predominate (Broadway and Wilkins, 2017). Feminist scholars have long argued that the gender pay gap is not only the result of human capital differences between individual women and men, but is also the product of gendered interpretations of the 'appropriate' wages for work performed by women and men (Grimshaw and Rubery, 2007).…”

Women, work and industrial relations in Australia in 2019

“…Women are overrepresented in jobs that entail difficult-to-automate emotional and care work, suggesting they may be less at risk of job displacement (ABS, 2016; Deloitte Insights, 2019; although see also Brussevich et al., 2018). Women’s emotional and care work, however, has historically been undervalued in the market due to deeply engrained gender biases regarding women’s intrinsic motivations for such work and the presumed lack of skill it requires (Broadway and Wilkins, 2017; Charlesworth and Macdonald, 2017). Thus, women may be partially shielded from automation-driven job loss, but unless the matter of their undervalued labour is substantially addressed, women’s labour market position is unlikely to advance.…”

Women, work and industrial relations in Australia in 2018

“…The standardised nature of modern award minimum wages should theoretically eliminate gender-based differences among the 24% of workers earning the applicable minimum wage (ABS, 2017a, cited by Broadway and Wilkins, 2017). However, there is significant variation in the wages and conditions set out in the 123 modern awards governing employees as of January 2019.…”

“…However, there is significant variation in the wages and conditions set out in the 123 modern awards governing employees as of January 2019. Drawing on Household, Income, and Labour Dynamics Australia data from 2008 to 2014, Broadway and Wilkins (2017) found that award-reliant women earned approximately 10% less per hour than award-reliant men. Unlike the GPG in market wages, the minimum wage GPG could not be ascribed to employer discrimination or human capital variations between men and women owing to the uniform nature of wage setting in the system.…”

“…Under the 4-yearly modern awards review, the FWC cut Sunday and holiday penalty rates in the female-dominated retail, hospitality, fast food and pharmacy sectors (FWC, 2017c), with the reductions coming into effect on 1 July 2018. Collectively, women account for 58% of employees in the retail sector and 52% of workers in the accommodation and food services sector (WGEA, 2017), sectors that suffer a 'femaleness penalty' in award wages, as identified by Broadway and Wilkins (2017). Women in these sectors are also substantially more likely than men to work part-time and rely on the premiums provided by penalty rates to supplement their earnings, which are well below men's average weekly earnings, both within the sector and across the economy (Daly, 2014).…”