About Pay Equity How did unequal pay arise?

The labour market has been distorted by historical, social constraints and prejudices. While there may be no intention on the part of employers to act unfairly towards their female employees, market rates incorporate historic distortions and assumptions about what ‘skilled work’ is and what women’s work is worth. Without some means of addressing the social components in these market rates, labour markets will continue to operate in a discriminatory way.

The main reason for the inequitable pay gap is the uneven distribution of the workforce, in which more men occupy well-paid jobs than women and more women work part-time or casually. The second contributor is the value placed on traditionally female work versus traditionally male work. And the third contributor is the difference in amount paid to men and women undertaking the same job but are paid a different wage simply because of gender (which often occurs unconsciously).

Other factors contributing to the earnings gap include:

• Undervaluation of women’s work and skills

• Greater numbers of women at the bottom of organisations where pay is the lowest and greater numbers of men at the top where pay is higher and where discretionary pay and bonuses are more likely to be made

• Gender expectations that make women’s ‘natural’ skills seem to be worth less

• Different levels of discretionary payments paid to male and female occupations (eg, over-award payments, bonus payments, commissions, allowances, etc)

• Explicit and implicit views and values that men need and deserve to be paid more

• Over-influence of existing job hierarchies

• Failure to recognise that current pay hierarchies may reflect social power or industrial muscle

• Job descriptions that do not include the full range of actual skills employed

Equal opportunity factors contributing to the earnings gap include:

• Differential in working times, as women have less access to paid overtime and are more likely to be in part-time or casual positions

• Occupational segregation of labour into ‘men’s work’ and ‘women’s work’ across industries and within occupations

• Less access to training for women workers

• Inflexible structures and workplace practices which restrict the employment prospects of workers with family responsibilities

• Greater likeliness of women to take time off work for family responsibilities

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