Boys paid more than girls in pocket money gender pay gap
IF you want to prepare your daughter for working life, give her less pocket money than a boy. That’s the ugly message being sent by an emerging gender pay gap in children’s pocket money.
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IF you want to prepare your daughter for working life, give her less pocket money than a boy.
That’s the ugly message being sent by an emerging gender pay gap in children’s pocket money payments, as boys - even at the age of 11 - earn 12 per cent more than girls.
New research spanning thousands of children aged 12 and under shows that boys are paid an average $13.57 a week while girls receive $12.08.
The figures echo research revealed in Britain last month and have been slammed by parents and equality advocates.
While nobody suggests that parents pay their own children differently to each other, the research by comparison website Finder.com.au shows that boy-only families pay more, and that in one-child households boys get $18 a week and girls $15.
Elena Rorie, director of policy at BPW (Business & Professional Women) Australia, said the pocket money gender gap had “no justification whatsoever other than parents’ unconscious biases”.
“This is the real worry about this trend and it should be addressed before it becomes unconsciously accepted by kids as normal,” she said.
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Workplace Gender Equality Agency director Libby Lyons said gender inequality and stereotyping was a cradle-to-grave issue.
“What are we saying about the value of women’s work if we say it is OK to pay girls and boys differently at such a young age?” she said.
The Finder research targeted 2005 parents of 3521 children, and found that some said they were more likely to pay sons pocket money than daughters.
“We don’t want young boys and girls growing up with the view this disparity is normal,” said spokeswoman Bessie Hassan.
“It has always been said that pocket money is a great way to teach children about finances when they’re young. Clearly parents are taking this a step further by introducing the gender pay gap at home,” she said.
Overseas research released last month by British group Childwise reported that boys received the equivalent of $22.10 a week, compared with $17.19 for girls, while separate older research from Commonwealth Bank of Australia found almost 80 per cent of parents paid pocket money and boys were paid slightly more.
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CBA head of school banking and youth Veronica Howarth said the bank found boys appeared to be slightly better savers than girls, and said a general rule of thumb used by parents was to pay $1 for every year of age for their child.
“In our opinion, to make it fair, the amount you set should be consistent for all of your kids,” she said.
Suncorp behavioural economist Phil Slade said parents paying pocket money were comparing themselves with other parents and it was often based on what their children heard at school.
“Kids are essentially dictating how much they get paid — they don’t realise it, of course,” he said.
Mr Slade said pocket money was not so much about how much children were paid, but what they were taught to do with it.
“Ten dollars can be worth a lot more than a kid who gets $50,” he said.
Jenna Foster, 32, started paying her daughter Sophie, 7, and son Lachlan, 6, pocket money late last year and said they would always be paid equally.
“There is no gender discrimination in my house,” she said.
As for the idea of boys earning more pocket money than girls, Miss Foster said: “I couldn’t think of anything more wrong than putting that into them young”.
Originally published as Boys paid more than girls in pocket money gender pay gap