History of Gender pay gap in Australia

The gender pay gap issue for women is not a new topic. Today, my intention in this article is to provide a history of gender pay gap in Australia.

Gender pay gap is deeply rooted in Australia’s history of wage legislation. It was first legally mandated by the Harvester judgement in 1907 stating that a man needed to provide for his whole family while a woman only needed to provide for herself. Thus, women were mandated to be paid 54 percent of a man’s wage.

These gender-differentiated pay rates were attached to occupations instead of individual employees, those in the male-dominated professions were paid the highest rates and those in female-dominated professions, the lowest.

The Australian Conciliation and Arbitration Commission1 made several rulings in the late 1960s and early 1970s related to wage determination based on gender. In 1969, the first ruling mandated equal pay for equal work, but it only applied to those women working in male-dominated industries or occupations that were classified at the highest pay rates. This ruling impacted a mere 18 percent of the entire population of female employees.

In 1972, the Commission extended the 1969 ruling and eliminated the gender-based occupational classifications, thus mandating equal pay across all occupations and industries. However, when the pay rates were changed for female-classified occupations in order to follow the ruling, they were often relegated to the lower salary ranges relative to the pay scales for male classified occupations. This practice therefore perpetuated the wage gap.

Subsequent rulings in 1973 granted an equal minimum wage for Australians regardless of gender and, in 1974, the designation of "breadwinner" in the male wage classification was eliminated. According to the Australian Workers’ Union, despite these additional judgements, the wage gap still hovered around 17 percent in 2012. The Fair Work Commission (previously Fair Work Australia), a national tribunal for workplace relations, was established in 2009.

The Tribunal issued its first equal pay ruling in 2012, which mandated a pay increase of up to 41 percent in industries that were historically female occupations. The ruling mainly applied to those in the social and community services (SACS) sector, which the Tribunal argued was associated with "care" work that has traditionally been categorised as female.

After the passage of the Workplace Gender Equality Act 2012 (Commonwealth Consolidated Act), the Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA) now requires annual reporting from every organisation with 100 or more employees regarding their efforts to narrow the wage gap and minimise gender inequality in the workplace (Commonwealth Government of Australia 2012).

In May 2020 during COVID-19 pandemic, the national gender pay gap is 14% which means a difference of $253.60 per week according to ABS and WGEA (the Workplace Gender Equality Agency) https://www.wgea.gov.au/newsroom/media-releases/the-national-gender-pay-gap-is-now-140

Despite ongoing governmental efforts, the social norms of gendered wage determination are so deeply entrenched that its legacy persists today.

1The Australian Conciliation and Arbitration Commission was established in 1973. It effectively replaced the functions of Commonwealth Conciliation & Arbitration Commission.