ADJOURNMENT – EQUAL PAY DAY

Today I rise to talk about the difference between what men and women earn in Australia.

Today marks Equal Pay Day.

The first of September has been chosen as Equal Pay Day because it is the day at which women's annual earnings reach the same level as men's in the previous financial year.

Each year, on average, Australian women earn 17 per cent less than their male counterparts.

So a woman would need to work until today, 1 September, to earn what the average male employee had earned by June 30.

On the 1st of September 1943 Jessie Street in a letter to the Sydney Morning Herald wrote:

"Women workers have been underpaid and exploited in the past. They have shown their capacity and efficiency for the Services, in defence works, and in replacing men workers in various occupations. The time has arrived when women's work must be valued at the same ratio as men's work. For instance, it is absurd that the pay of a nurse, with all her skill and responsibility, should be less than the man's basic wage.

Make the payment fit the qualifications and nature of the work."

That was 66 years ago.

26 years later in 1969, the Commonwealth Conciliation and Arbitration Commission made the first equal pay for equal work decision.

Here we are forty years later, women are still earning less than men - including for the same work, in the same industries.

This pay gap exists across all industries and occupations.

Over a lifetime it can add up to as much as $1 million difference.

And a lifetime of lower wages leads to lower levels of savings and less superannuation at retirement.

The average superannuation payout to a woman is projected to be $150,000, that's half the average payout to a man in 2010/2011.

Inequality between men and women's wages is widening.

Last year, equal payday was held on August 28.

This year, women's wages have fallen even further, pushing equal payday back a further five days.

Women have always made significant gains in paid employment.

Women's participation in work has made a significant contribution to our workplaces, our governments, our families and our communities.

The majority of women are still mostly employed in lower paid industries including retail trade; health and community services; property and business services and education.

Women also constitute a large proportion of the under-employed and the hidden unemployed.

Women remain heavily under-represented in senior management in virtually all occupations and industries.

Less than two per cent of ASX listed companies have a female CEO... only one in 12 board directors is a woman.

New female graduates can expect to earn $2000 a year less than their male counterparts when they enter the workforce... this gap widens over a career.

Study after study shows that women continue to be responsible for a disproportionate share of unpaid childcare and household work.

The gap in gender pay simply serves to reinforce this.

The issue, like so many is others, is complex and does not have an easy solution.

If it did I like to think that it would have been fixed by now.

On Equal Pay Day the members of the Equal Pay Alliance are campaigning for:

- Meaningful reporting by employers of equal pay and employment opportunities;

- Regular independent monitoring and reporting to the Australian Parliament of progress to achieve gender equality, including progress towards achieving equal pay;

- A greater role for government agencies in auditing, promoting and implementing equal pay and employment opportunity programs in workplaces;

- Proper valuation and funding of wages and conditions for work traditionally carried out by women;

- Better regulation of flexible work arrangements for women and men with caring responsibilities and increased protection from discrimination on the grounds of family and carer responsibilities;

- Improved quality, accessible and affordable childcare including after school hours and vacation care; and

- Improved equal employment opportunity practices in workplaces including accredited work related training and professional development.

There is much work still to be done.

I welcome the Rudd Labor government's paid parental leave scheme and the Parliamentary inquiry last year into "Women's equal opportunities in the workforce including pay equity".

Labor's ongoing support and commitment to a fair industrial relations system with the ability to collectively bargain remains an important part of addressing women's inequality.

We do however need to do more to assist women who cannot access collective agreements.

Equal Pay Day provides a chance to focus our attention on what needs to be done to close this particular the inequality between women and men.

That this issue remains unresolved is an indictment on how we all strive to build a modern and fair Australia.