Equal Pay Day - 50 year battle

The five-year Australia at Work longitudinal study of more than 4000 employees by the University of Sydney's Workplace Research Centre has found a wage gap of more than 8 per cent between men and women on an hourly basis, even after all mitigating factors are taken into account.

The results were obtained after controlling for a broad set of economic and non-economic variables, including age, industry, qualifications, experience, care commitments, workplace size and location and the level of input each employee had in pay negotiations.

The researchers concluded that once all factors were weighted to create a level playing field, women were still being paid 8.2 per cent less than men doing exactly the same work.The largest non-gender-based factor in low pay was the industry in which a person worked, the survey found, with the highest-paying sector being mining and the lowest-paying retail.

A worker from a culturally or linguistically diverse background earned on average 6.8 per cent less than their co-workers, and those working in regional areas earned 8.7 per cent less than counterparts in a capital city.

Those who were employed on a collective agreement were found to have no significant earnings advantage over those on awards, but those who said they were working under an individual agreement earned on average 17.4 per cent more.

However, less than a third of the gender wage gap could be explained by such variables, the survey found, leading the researchers to conclude that the large ''unexplained'' gap was due to gender ''in and of itself''.

The Unions NSW deputy assistant secretary, Emma Maiden, said the study reinforced the need for effective political and industrial campaigning.
''No one is going to hand us equality on a platter. More women need to join trade unions and campaign for equality, just as preceding generations did,'' she said.

The research, which was conducted in partnership with Unions NSW, will be launched today to mark Equal Pay Day, at a function which will pay tribute to the women who fought for equal pay over the past century.

One of those planning to attend is 81-year-old June De Lorenzo from Bondi, who as a bus conductor led the fight for women's workplace rights in the public transport sector for more than five decades. Over the years she fought for the right for women to become bus drivers, then for their right to continue working while pregnant, and for access to the same social benefits as their male colleagues.

In 1986 she became president of the NSW branch of the Tram Rail and Bus Union.
That the gender pay gap remains in 2011 makes her feel ''disgusted'', she said.
''I worked with women who had been deserted by their husbands, rearing kids on their own, yet they were earning less than single men,'' she said.
''It was so unfair. But the days of exploiting women should have been long gone.''