Australian women short changed
BPW Australia welcomes the release today of research that supports their longstanding claims that working women are disadvantaged in terms of pay equity in the workplace. In its Gender Income Distribution of Top Earners Report released this week the EOWA confirmed that Australian women were paid 84% of the menÕs average weekly earnings.
Women continue to be underrepresented in senior management positions, and where representation is more evenly distributed they continue to receive less income.
BPW participated in the first federal equal pay case in 1969 and was excited when equal pay for equal value was established three years later. It is shameful that so many years later women now face a 16% gender pay gap. We should all be alarmed that the report confirms that when all else appears equal, there is a broad undervaluation of womenÕs skills.
Minister for Housing and Minister for the Status of Women, Tanya Plibersek has reiterated the Australian GovernmentÕs commitment to breaching the gender pay gap. BPW Australia supports this commitment and will continue to lobby Government until that goal is achieved. As an organization representing the rights of all working women, we are determined to breach the gender pay gap for all women in Australia ensuring that is not 16% but 0%.
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For further comment please contact:
Marilyn Forsythe
BPW Australian president
Phone: 02 8824 4686
Mobile: 0412 259 656
Business and Professional Women (BPW) is an international organisation that educates and informs women, undertaking research and projects aimed at improving the status of women. BPW lobbies governments at all levels including the United Nations where it holds Special Category Status on current and emerging issues of importance to women.