The message is clear, women are not part of Australia’s fair go

Shameful statistics have revealed a shocking pay rort in Australia – and one group in particular is targeted.

OPINION

Today is Equal Pay Day which is ironic considering that the pay gap has widened in Australia in the last 12 months.

Equal Pay Day marks the 60 additional days from the end of the financial year that women must work to earn the same as men earnt that year.

We are so far away from equal; it’s past funny. ABS stats show it jumped up 1.9 per cent from the previous year, and the pay gap for full-time workers currently sits at 14.1 per cent.

Yes, things are getting worse despite our ‘The Future is Female’ T-shirts and pussy hats.

It looks even grimmer if you break it down state by state. For instance, the gender pay gap sits at 22.9 per cent in Western Australia and 13.4 per cent in New South Wales. So, while 14.1 per cent is the national pay gap, there are parts of Australia where women are dealing with an even more significant gap.

Full-time working women earn less than men is every Aussie state.

If I’m honest, 14.1 per cent sounds like too much but not that much, right? I wouldn’t run to buy something on sale if it was 14 per cent off. But when you break it down, on average, a woman working full-time takes home $1609 a week, while men bring home around $1872.90 a week. That’s around $200 bucks different a week.

Plus, men don’t have to pay for things like contraception, tampons or hundreds of bucks to get their hair coloured. (OK, that’s a choice, but seriously my boyfriend’s haircut costs $30.)

It’s all very depressing, and for me, it sends a loud message that statements like, “if you work hard, it’ll pay off,” and “Australia is the land of the fair go!” are complete rubbish. The statistics tell us that Australia is not a fair place for women. No amount of girl bossing or staying back late at work will fix the issue.

These weekly earnings end up messing up women’s financial future. Half of all women aged 45 to 59 have $8000 or less in their superannuation funds, compared to $31,000 for men.

Plus, the average superannuation payout for women is a third of the payout for men – $37,000 compared with $110,000. This tracks with the fact that women over 50+ are one of the vulnerable groups to homelessness. Hard to keep a house when you barely have enough money to retire.

What can be done about the gender pay gap?

So, what do we do? I often have conversations, whether online or at the pub, and the men in my life, or just plain old strangers, are the first to say they disagree with the gender pay gap and really want things to change.

The good news is that there are ways men can help to bridge this gap; the bad news is that most men aren’t doing them. (See, I didn’t say all, so you can’t rouse on me!)

So, here are three simple thing any man can do to help bridge the gap:

1. When your female partner is on maternity leave, and you’re still working, split the superannuation contributions you get between both of your funds.

2. Ask the women you work with on the same level as you what they earn. If it is less than you, talk to your boss. You could even go so far as to split your pay, so they get the same. (Come on, even Kyle Sandilands did it!)

3. Advocate for your work to conduct pay equality audits.

These are simple things, but they involve men taking less so women can have more.

That’s the hard part about equality that no one wants to talk about. For women to earn equally, men have to take a cut in their pay. Which is hard right?

It’s one thing to believe women deserve more, it’s another thing to see $200 less in your pay packet. But perhaps that highlights how complex pay inequality has become and how much it needs to change.

I imagine that most men don’t think they deserve to be paid less. Some might even find it impossible to survive if they did. So why, then, are we so bloody comfortable paying women less?

Mary Madigan is a freelance writer.