GENDER- WAGE GAP IN AUSTRALIA - Essay Example

?Running Head: GENDER- WAGE GAP IN AUSTRALIA Over a period of about 100 years and more particularly over the period from year 1990 to year 2009, the way women in Australia take part in both the economy and the society has changed a great deal. Women have increasingly been participating in employment, having fewer children, are delaying the getting of children and are highly educated. Legislative changes have been effected like the 1986’s Federal Discrimination Act and the 1961’s Matrimonial Causes Act. The analysis presented from the Bureau of Statistics of Australia data shows that this nation of Australia has had a persistent gender wage gap. (Cassells, Rebecca, et al, 2009) The data obtained from the Survey of Average Weekly Earnings the years from 1990 to 2009, there was a narrow range of gender wage gap of between 15-17%. Over the period from early year 2005 to early year 2009 the range has been from 15.1-17.0%. (Wright, Tim, 2006) Causes of the predicament of gender wage gap in Australia, even though complex, are inter-linked and are most likely to change over time. These factors can be classified into two major factors; those that can be explained (labour market and human capital factors) and unexplained factors. (fahcsia.gov.au, 2009) Numerous studies have been carried out, and most of these have concentrated on the query whether discrimination is the main catalyst of the existing gaps in the wages between male as well as female workers or whether the fundamental catalyst of the gap in wages is the male’s and female’s attainment of human capital. These variances are, however, not easy to separate especially due to the fact that forms by which discrimination maybe interlinked with other factor’s attainment. Generally, the term discrimination can be defined as that situation where the market place players consider the sex and race factors while making any economic exchanges. Findings by most of the studies carried in the Australian wage gap situation have suggested that labour market variations between male and females and human capital are not as important in understanding the issue of gender wage gap as the ways in which these variations are rewarded. (Cassells, Rebecca, et al, 2009) Human capital can be utilised as a predictor of levels of wages and therefore, wage gap arises from work. Human capital is defined by the book as the skills in entirety as well as the experience that an individual puts into an employment which are relevant to that employment. It encompasses all the qualifications as well as training given by employers and also the experience gained from previous experience from the market. (Miller, Riel, 1996, p22) In those studies that have been carried out of gender wage gap, the measurement of human capital is mostly measured via formal education attained as well as the number of years of work experience. Some of these studies also make an inclusion of other variables to like the utilisation of the training provided by the employer. The component of education is usually captured in virtually entire studies of gender wage gap, mostly through the usage of several dummy variables that take the highest education level that has been completed. For instance, high school completion, bachelor degree or post school training. (Cassells, Rebecca, et al, 2009) Also included, is the study field as one of the variables with the gender wage gap model being applied. This is due to the fact that wages vary with the study field. There is also a significant segregation in gender in the fields of study in post-secondary education. Most of the conclusions that have been drawn from the studies carried out in the nation of Australia of labour market rigidities and discrimination are that returns gained from education by females are from a generic point of view below those of their male counterparts. This is in spite of the ladies having a bit of higher education attainment. Additional schooling according to the journal creates openings to better job positions more to men than women. Also from work experience, returns of work to men are higher in comparison to those of women. (Haque, Rowshan and Haque, Mohammed Ohidul, 2008 p57) The study notes that not the entire determinants of the wage gap to genders are in relation to personal factors like work experience and education. There is also a role played by the labour market failures in the maintainance and the generation of wage gap. These failures point in specific to the rigidities in the labour market in relation to industrial and occupational segregation, insufficiency in the flexibility of the market of labour to let females to make a combination of work and rearing of children as well as discrimination. (University of Adelaide, and Flinders University of South Australia, 2004) The failures of the labour market may be with the inclusion of occupational segregation and this refers to how differently males and females are distributed to various occupations than the consistency of with all employment shares. Occupational segregation in Australia is an indicator of the undervaluation of the work of women. Traditionally, women jobs are less paid than male jobs. Alongside the occupational segregation is the industrial segregation which according to Australian studies has in general shown the segregation in industries has a tendency of widening wage gaps. Also employment sectors impacts on the gender wage gap. To this, Australian studies have shown that wage gaps are higher in the private sector than the case is in the public sector. (Cassells, Rebecca, et al, 2009) The journal by Todd and Eveline concentrates on the human capital theory factor in the gender wage gap issue. Human capital as a theory is very useful in the study and analysis of the contributors of the inequality in the gender pay. For instance, the levels of labour pay for females is in Australia’s market experience aided in the reduction of the gender wage gap in around the 1980s by approximately a quarter. This theory maintains the view that females’ choice of employment as well as the remuneration that follows as the main end of their rational decisions in capital investment. The premise holding this up is the fact that the choices by females are highly influenced by the part they play in their reproduction socially. Within this kind of framework, thus, ladies can invest in practically lesser training as well as spend lesser time in the workforce due to the decision they make to produce children. This has been the traditional approach to explain why women’s wages are lower in comparison to the men’s earning levels. (Todd and Eveline, 2004) In the most recent times the researchers of human capital have made an argument that females maybe making choices to place bigger weight than men upon the non-wage types of benefits like convenient working hours as well as arrangements for leaves and as well that this maybe applied in the explanation of the wage inequality among genders. (Krepp, 2007) These econometric studies mentioned above have been used to also include other demographic factors like children, marital status as well as job characteristics. The research has made contribution to more detailed perspective of how the personal employment’s nature may play part in the explanation of wage gap. This has also aided in the detailed type of analysis of the effects of occupational segmentation of wage outcomes for females and males. However, in spite of its huge contribution towards the explanations about gender wage gaps it has its shortcomings as a theory as shown in this journal. This is due to the fact that it does not explain anything to do with the highly unexplained component of discrimination. An example is where it fails to explain the reason for improvements in women education as well as participation in the gender wage gap is yet to reduce. Also, there is the failure to explain why human capital as a theory takes up a narrow type of interpretation of the discrimination factor by the ignoring of cultural and systematic social factors which shape employment and educational variances. (Todd and Eveline, 2004) References: Cassells, Rebecca, et al. (2009). The Impact Of A Sustained Gender Wage Gap On The Australian Economy. Retrieved on 01 October 2011 http://www.eowa.gov.au/Pay_Equity/Files/NATSEM%20Report%2020101%20impact_o f_gender_wage_gap[1].pdf fahcsia.gov.au. (2009). The impact of a sustained gender wage gap on the Australian economy. Retrieved 2 October 2011  http://www.fahcsia.gov.au/sa/women/pubs/general/gender_wage_gap/Pages/p3.aspx Haque, Rowshan and Haque, Mohammed Ohidul. (2008). Gender, Ethnicity and Employment: Non-English Speaking Background Migrant Women in Australia. Springer. p57. Krepp, Lisa. The Effect of Children on Women’s Earnings: Evidence from Australian Data. (2007). Retrieved 2 October 2011 http://www.economics.unimelb.edu.au/downloads/wpapers-07/1004.pdf Miller, Riel. (1996). Measuring what people know: human capital accounting for the knowledge economy. Edition reprint. OECD Publishing. p22. Todd, Trish and Eveline, Joan. (2004). Report on the Review of the Gender Pay Gap in Western Australia. Retrieved on 01 October 2011 http://www.commerce.wa.gov.au/labourrelations/PDF/Publications/Gender_Pay_Final_ Rep.pdf University of Adelaide, and Flinders University of South Australia. (2004). Australian economic papers, Volume 43. University of Adelaide. Wright, Tim. (2006). Time for Change: Australia in the 21st Century. Edition illustrated. Hardie Grant Publishing. Bottom of Form Read More