Happy (almost) International Women’s Day! As much as I love celebrating all the fabulous women in my life – Mum, always Mum – March 8 is also the day to talk women’s rights. And in Australia, a huge part of that is fighting for equal pay because two people doing the exact same job should be paid the exact same wage.
The national gender pay gap measures the difference between the average full-time earnings of women and men in the workforce. According to the government backed Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA), Australia’s current national gender pay gap is sitting at 13.9 per cent, which translates to women earning on average $242.90 less than men per week.
If you want to get into the nitty-gritty of how you calculate the national gender pay gap, you can suss out the formula right here.
These results are from November 2019, which isn’t that long ago. But in a small win, there has been a decrease of 0.3 of a percentage point in the gender pay gap since November 2018, which had been 14.1 percent. Per WGEA, Australia’s national gender pay gap has hovered between 13.9 per cent and 19 per cent for the past two decades.
As International Women’s Day 2020 approaches, the team at Bumble put together a report reflecting a slew of results from a recent YouGov survey. In said survey, 1,018 Australian women aged 18-45 discussed what really matters to them. Topics included the gender pay gap and workplace gender equality.
I don’t know about you folks, but the statistics are clear to me. Women earn less, but unfortunately 1 in 5 Australian men still believe there is no gender pay gap. I can’t tell you why, but unfortunately that’s just the truth. Not to mention, over 80 per cent of Australian women don’t actually know the gender pay gap in the country is at almost 14 per cent. I was definitely one of them. I had no idea it was at that percentage until I wrote this yarn.
In the workplace, more than 1 in 4 young Australian women (under 30) say their biggest issue is the lack of diversity in senior leadership teams. The WGEA says workplace gender equality is achieved when people can work towards the same rewards, resources, and opportunities regardless of gender.
And according to the survey, 3 out of 4 Australian women say they would like to see more policies introduced by the government to enable greater equality for working women in Australia. I don’t think that’s a lot to ask, to be honest. Do you?
Happy International Women’s Day, my friends.
