Is Australia a working woman's 'paradise'?

Reinforcing women’s position in low paid sectors of the economy rather than face the penalties for non-compliance and breaching, it is difficult to claim such participation and opportunity as a success.

Part-time and casual work has grown significantly in recent years, in part underpinned by global competition and employers’ preferences for non-standard forms of employment. While younger generations of women seem to be showing greater levels of attachment to the workforce, much of the employment growth has been in the part-time labour market where a significant share of jobs performed by women are casual and short-hour.

In some sectors (for example, in hospitality) a growing trend towards offering shorter shifts can be identified as a way of minimising costs (i.e. saving on payments for breaks). Part-time work is particularly favoured by women in the key child-rearing years (35-44).

While business groups and employers claim that women elect these hours, evidence suggests that this it isn’t a complete supply side phenomenon. Women may indeed choose to participate in part-time work over full-time work; however, it is important to understand how such choices are made. As research consistently identifies, many women take into account a range of internal and external factors including, difficulties faced in securing child-care, required participation among single-parent (mother) welfare participants, changed employment demand preferences by employers and a changed IR climate supporting more atypical forms of employment.

While part-time employment does facilitate labour market retention its contribution to narrowing the economic or financial gap between men and women is debateable. Part-time jobs tend to be poorly paid relative to full-time position.

Research elsewhere has highlighted the other less than favourable features of part-time work - for example, reduced promotional opportunities, reduced access to education and training; reduced certainty concerning employment security and reduced superannuation accumulations.

Australia’s WEF ranking with respect to labour force participation must, therefore, take into account hours of work, the quality of the jobs and the number of jobs (multiple job holding) if we are to make a more informed assessment as to whether or not such participation does indeed contribute to enhancing the economic security of women.

In this context the extent to which women are integrated into employment as opposed to marginalised, casual, vulnerable part-time jobs, is critical for their economic and financial outcomes as well as their empowerment, status and well-being.

Remuneration gap

In the 2006 WEF report Australia ranked 45th on the “wage equality” measure and 8th on the income ratio, with the female-male income ratio equal to 0.72. By way of comparison New Zealand ranked 59th on the wage equality measure (with the ratio equal to 0.63) and 14th on the income ratio (equal to 0.68).

At the aggregate level the Australian gender pay gap (measured using mean earnings data) has exhibited remarkable stability. There has been little variation in the gap in the full-time labour market, notwithstanding radical economic and social reforms. At November 2007 the gender wage ratio in the full-time labour market was equal to 83.9 per cent. It was lower in the private sector where, in contrast to the relative stability of earlier periods, it has recently been in decline.

Bargaining arrangements also influence the pay gap with part-timers and casual workers (the majority of whom are women) less likely to be covered by a collectively negotiated agreement and more likely to experience a wage penalty relative to full-timers (most recently available ABS figures suggest a part-time/full-time pay gap of about 20 per cent).

The strong growth of part-time and casual work in low paid sectors (i.e. sectors where wage growth has been below average) has also contributed to the widening part-time/full-time wage differential. This raises additional questions and concerns as to the quality of work and the sorts of new employment opportunities being created and celebrated in Australia.