Why the gender pay gap has narrowed

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TRANSCRIPT
When Ryan Marsden-Smith had his daughter Dorothia last year, access to paid parental leave meant he and his wife could share the caring responsibilities.
“Working with my wife, we worked out a plan, to enable her to get back to work when she wanted to, and so I took four weeks off in one block, another six weeks in a separate block, and able to support her breastfeeding Dorothea while still at work.”
Mr Marsden-Smith Ryan says he was encouraged to take that time off, meaning his wife Sophia wasn’t disadvantaged.
“My wife didn’t have any unpaid leave, had her own parental leave scheme through work, government Centrelink support as well, didn’t miss out on any super payments, so she hasn’t had that career break, and we’ve got a 15-month old. We’ve gone through that whole period where she hasn’t taken a backward step and we’re on equal playing terms.”
He’s part of a growing trend.
This year’s gender equality scorecard shows men accounted for 17 percent of primary carer parental leave.
That’s an increase of 3 percent.
Mary Wooldridge is the Chief Executive of the Workplace Gender Equality Agency.
She says her agency wants that portion of men taking parental leave to increase even more.
‘What we know is that when men take parental leave, not only is it very positive to them in terms of that engagement and engagement to their children and their families, but it fundamentally shifts that dynamic on an ongoing basis, creating a more equal sharing of that caring responsibility, which helps enable women to return to work, should they want to, as well as men participating in the caring. So, shifting that culture, shifting that dynamic, supporting men to take parental leave is a really fundamental part of creating equality in the workplace and at home.”
This year’s scorecard shows the average gender pay gap is 21.8 percent, which is a decrease of point six of a percent from last year.
That means for every dollar a man earns on average, a woman earns 78 cents.
That equates to nearly 28 and a half thousand dollars less each year.
The narrowing of the pay gap is also being attributed to boosting wages in low-paying sectors, particularly aged care workers.
Curtin University’s Silvia Salazar says increasing the minimum wage is key to closing the gap.
“We know that women are over-represented as minimum wage earners, so increasing the minimum wage also has higher repercussions for women and it impacts the gender pay gap.”
The data covers 5.17 million employees across more than 7,400 private sector employers.
It shows 56 percent of employers have reduced their average gender pay gap, while 44% recorded an increase.
The Australian Council of Trade Unions [[A-C-T-U]] also released a separate report, using ABS figures.
It found on average, the pay gap is shrinking by 1.3 percentage points each year.
The A-C-T-U’s president is Michele O’Neil.
“If you’re a nine year old girl today, with the changes in the gender pay gap that have sped up since the change of government, then you’ll see the closure of the pay gap by the time you’re 18.”
But there is still a long way to go.
For the first time, the data included the remuneration of heads of business and chief executives, which is an area where the pay gap is widest, at 27.1 percent.
It found one in four boards have no women on them, and that 21.9% of CEOs are women, which is a decrease from the year before.
Researchers say experiences like Ryan’s are key to eventually closing the pay gap.