Folks, today is Equal Pay Day in Australia – marking the number of additional days a women in Australia has to work to earn the same as a man. This year it’s on August 29, 60 extra days of work from the July 1 benchmark (Equal Pay Day is measured from the start of the financial year). According to the Workplace Gender Equality Agency, the current pay gap is 14.1% and is slightly lower than last year’s pay gap (14.2%).
Equal Pay Day and any talk of the gender pay gap in Australia often brings out unsavoury and very frustrating conversations with *certain people* who refuse to acknowledge that it exists. Navigating these discussions can feel overwhelming, even when you are sure the facts are on your side. It was for this exact reason that I wrote my book, How to Win Every Argument in 2019 – a guide to help young people talk about controversial topics with informed confidence. It was inspired by my younger sister, Chelsea, who was frustrated by an argument she’d had trying to explain the gender pay gap to a handful of male peers at her uni.
So, to mark Equal Pay Day 2022 I’m publishing the ‘Gender Pay Gap’ chapter from the book here, for free. It gives you responses to some of the most common questions or misconceptions about the topic, and sadly the metrics on many of the references have not changed much since I wrote this in 2018.
Read on for the TL;DR guide to debating mansplainers on the gender pay gap – today, and every day thereafter!
Let me guess: if you had a dollar for every argument you’ve gotten into about whether or not a gender pay gap exists you’d be rich by now, right? And yet here we are in the 21st century, still trying to sort it out. Short answer: Yes, pay inequality exists. Long answer: It’s not as simple as Man vs. Woman. To be honest, it’s not simple at all.
Them: But [insert: ‘some guy I know’] doesn’t get paid more than his female colleagues!
You: That’s great, but anecdotal stories for either side of the argument aren’t enough to prove a point. And it’s not about comparing job for job: the problem is bigger than that. The stats show that in 2018, Australian men earned on average $25,717 per year more than women, which is roughly 21.3% more. That’s based on an analysis of over four million employees from all types of industries in full-time, part-time and casual work with a 50/50 gender split. No matter who you are, $25,000 is a lot of money. Why is it that regardless of the type of work, industry, level of seniority or even split of the workforce, men still make a significant amount more than women in Australia?
Them: Okay, but you can’t just take the averages – you have to compare like-for-like roles. It doesn’t count unless a man is being paid more money for doing the same job with the same experience, which is illegal anyway.
You: Actually, the Australian Bureau of Statistics and the Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA) both found a pay gap for full-time workers exists within every industry, and at every job level, in Australia. They’re comparing the same types of work and finding a gap every time; although the size of the pay gap does vary between industries.
Them: Well, of course women in construction, for example, are paid less on average. There are fewer of them! Men are disadvantaged in female-dominated industries, too.
You: You’re right that women are usually paid less in male-dominated industries. But the opposite argument doesn’t hold up either. The health sector is Australia’s most female-dominated industry and yet the pay gap in May 2022 is the second largest at 22.2% in favour of men. Assuming that female workers can reach the pinnacle of success in ‘typically’ feminine industries is wrong as well. In Australia the education industry is massively female-dominated, with women making up 71% of the workforce across primary and high schools. Yet women hold only 38% of ‘head of business’ roles in this industry. It’s clearly not just a numbers game. Even in industries where women are doing the hard yards, they’re not being promoted.
Them: But women don’t earn higher salaries because they don’t perform as well as men in those industries, right? Better performance equals better pay. That’s just how it works.
You: No, that’s not true. Take the ‘typically’ male industry of finance, has recorded the third biggest pay gap in Australia at 19%. That’s not necessarily a surprise. But what is surprising is that multiple studies have shown that female stock traders, on average, outperform male traders. In fact, a US study has shown that women are better traders than men in times of both market buoyancy and decline, which has in part been attributed to their higher levels of sensitivity – dispelling the idea that women are too emotional to handle money matters.
Them: Look, the average woman takes 12 months maternity leave at least once in her career. That’s time out of the game while her male colleague gains a further year of experience. It makes sense that more experience equals more pay.
You: Here’s the thing: the WGEA found that the pay gap starts from the time we all enter the workforce. In fact, research into university graduate starting salaries in 2018 showed a 4.8% pay gap. That’s small but it’s still there. If you’ve just finished uni, we can safely assume you haven’t taken ‘time out of the game’ just yet. And surely the level of experience you have in your first job is much less important than it is later in your career? Unless writing essays at the last minute counts as experience?
From an age perspective, the smallest gap (but again, still a gap) is for workers aged 20 and under, who are also very unlikely to have taken maternity leave or worked part time to care for children. That gap only grows as women get older. I mean, come on!
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