Trends in Australia's Gender—Wage Ratio

Abstract

Contrary to expectations, Australia's gender-wage ratio (GWR) has remained remarkably stable throughout a prolonged era ofsignificant labourmarket deregulation. This article examines recent trends in IntroductionIt is widely argued that women are disadvantaged by reforms to increasingly deregulate the Australian labour market, with expressions of concern about the federal jurisdiction's WorkChoices legislation being a recent example. The concern for women's relative labour-market positions stems from their often weaker bargaining position, commonly attributed to their occupations and skills. Within Australia and internationally, it has been demonstrated that women are more likely to benefit from the protections afforded by labour-market institutions such as tribunals, legislation and collective agreements (Gregory and Ho 1985;Gregory and Daly 1992; Blau and Kahn 1993;Harbridge and Thickett 2003;Rubery 1992;Whitehouse 1992;Gregory 1999;Crockett and Preston 1999). In recent years, the concern for women's relatively vulnerable position in an increasingly individualised labour market prompted several key organisations with an interest in gender and public policy to commission a report examining the potential for data to adequately assess changes in women's wages and working conditions (Preston, Jefferson and Seymour 2006).Copyright of Full Text rests with the original copyright owner and, except as permitted under the Copyright Act 1968, copying this copyright material is prohibited without the permission of the owner or its exclusive licensee or agent or by way of a licence from Copyright Agency Limited. For information about such licences contact Copyright Agency Limited on (02) 93947600 (ph) or (02) 93947601 (fax) 70 LABOUR & INDUSTRY, Vol. 18, No.2, December 2007 Contrary to expectations, however, Australia's gender-wage ratio (GWR) has remained remarkably stable throughout a prolonged era of significant labourmarket deregulation since the mid-1990s. From a theoretical perspective the stability of the gender-wage ratio over this period is somewhat surprising and puzzling. This article examines recent trends and identifies three key issues that serve to caution against interpreting stability in the national wage ratio as an indicator of women's performance in the labour market.

Individual contracting, collective bargaining and wages in Australia

“…Over the same period the 90/10 earnings decile in the UK widened by 6 per cent (to 3.6), while the incidence of low pay increased by 8 per cent (to 20.9 per cent) (OECD, 2008). Other aspects of the Australian wage structure show related trends including a widening gender pay gap, particularly among part‐time employees (Preston and Jefferson, 2007).…”

Women, Work and Industrial Relations in 2008

“…For women, one of the most difficult periods in combining work and family demands is on the return to work after maternity leave. Male employees in Australia tend to work some of the longest hours in the OECD (Van Wanrooy et al, 2007: 66) whereas women manage paid work and family responsibilities by working part time and if possible accessing flexible working arrangements, including flexible working hours (Baird and Charlesworth, 2007;Preston and Jefferson, 2007).…”

An estimate of women's contribution to agricultural and regional communities in Australia

“…The different wage rates are not necessarily indicative of differences in the marginal productivity of men and women. Australia has a long and ongoing record of women's disproportionate representation in lower paying occupations (Preston 2001;Preston and Jefferson 2007). A second "bottom up" approach can be undertaken by using the same labour input shown in Table 11 (formal employment only) and applying average men's and women's wage rates to those estimates.…”