Many may be wondering what the hell we’re talking about since everyone enjoys equal pay because it would be illegal to discriminate based on sex.
But the truth is that women around the world, including Australia, continue to be discriminated against when it comes to how much they get paid for the work that they do.
Women doing the same job as men are supposed to be paid the same by law. However, many women still find themselves underpaid and too often miss out on the best jobs, resulting in a 18% gender pay gap. Unions believe everyone’s work should be valued properly. In 2010 closing the pay gap and providing more opportunities for working women are major priorities.
It's not one of those things can be conveniently swept under the rug when the facts speak for themselves.
Just consider the following facts:
* Women in full-time paid work still earn 18% less than men or $1 million less over a lifetime.
* Women are now more likely to have a tertiary qualification than men, but women graduates will earn $2000 less than male graduates and $7500 less by the fifth year after graduation.
* Fewer than 2% of ASX 200 companies have a female CEO and only 1 in 12 board directors are women.
* Women retire with less than half the amount of savings in their superannuation accounts compared with men.
* Under the former Coalition Government’s WorkChoices laws, the pay gap widened for the first time in 25 years, as thousands of women lost penalty rates and other important job conditions and minimum wages were cut in real terms.
This year the pay gap has widened further and now takes a full year plus 66 days for women to make the same pay as men do. Women, men, unions and business groups have been working hard for many decades to see this pay gap wiped out.
Tomorrow, with the Victorian Trades Hall Council, we'll be raising awareness of the growing pay gap. We're expecting a big turn-out, especially given the great list of speakers, which includes Ged Kearney, ACTU president.
If you're not going to be there you can join us as the “Your Rights at Work” team tweets from the event using the #equalpayday hashtag.
Get details about the Equal Pay campaign here.
R@W News is a forum for news, analysis and commentary about rights at work and related issues. The opinions presented in R@W News are those of the author, and do not necessarily represent policies or views of the ACTU.