Solving the Gender Pay Gap Equation

Equal parenting = Equal pay

Is this the very simple equation that will close the gender pay gap? It would certainly have an impact. Women are held back in their careers when they take time off to raise their children. In the latest ABS census, for parents aged 20–74 years, whose youngest child was under six years old, only around two-thirds of women compared to nine-tenths of men participated in the labour force: 65.5% of women and 94.4% of men. THAT is the real gap we need to address.

Of course it is a matter of choice for families* as to how they wish to raise their children. But the key word here is ‘choice’.

Do Australian families really have a choice about how they raise their children?

Combining the members of the upper and lower house in parliament today, the Labor party has come pretty close to equal representation of genders, with 45.5%. Comparatively the Liberal party that has been running the country since 2013 has only managed 27.3%. In a system designed by men and largely run by men, it’s hard to see how any type of reform on the question of paid parental leave or cheaper access to childcare – which currently overwhelmingly would support women into greater workforce participation – would ever occur.

As our Prime Minister the Hon Scott Morrison famously said: “We want to see women rise. But we don’t want to see women rise only on the basis of others doing worse.”

But I would argue that KPMG got it right in its Enhancing Work-Life Balance report when it stated that sharing parental responsibility more equally presents considerable personal and emotional advantages for mothers, fathers and children. “We want to encourage an economy and society where both parents have the opportunity to have an ongoing, consistent attachment to the workforce while they have young children,” it says.

This is beyond what is good for women. Diversity and inclusion is good for businesses, it’s good for the economy and it’s good for families.

Australia has moved beyond the norm of man as breadwinner, woman as homemaker. Women are staying at school, studying for degrees and starting careers. They have a choice about how it all begins, but then the equal opportunities begin to dry up. When they start to think about starting a family, the sacrifices creep in: career or family? Conversely, men have almost always sacrificed family by default and it’s wrong to not question whether this really is a happy normal for fatherhood.

In the 2018-19 ABS Barriers and Incentives to Labour Force Participation report, almost 50% of women cite caring for children as the main reason they are not working or not working more hours. Over the past 10 years since this data has been collected, caring for children has consistently been the main barrier to work for women. In stark contrast, the 2018-19 data showed only 3% of men cited caring for children as their main barrier to work.

Only 3% of men cited caring for children as their main barrier to work.

However, in order for women to have greater participation in the workforce, simply putting children into the care of others for the years until they begin school (assuming they can afford it) would not provide the strength and stability provided to a family if care was instead shared by both parents.

Normalising equal paid/unpaid parental leave for BOTH carers would solve this challenge, as well as equally flexible work arrangements.

It is a myth that both partners don’t equally want to spend time with their children in the most formative years, to create bonds, and to participate in the milestones of sitting, crawling, walking and talking. It is also a myth that women are better at looking after babies than men.

It is a myth that both partners don’t equally want to spend time with their children in the most formative years.

Current paid parental leave doesn’t cater to this. It caters to a society in which it is assumed the mother will be the one who is raising the children. Admittedly this is the default, and either parent can be nominated as the primary carer. But the system promotes the myth that the mother is automatically the primary carer, while her partner gets two weeks off and then it’s back to work.

Interestingly, both parents can take up to 12 months unpaid leave and yet men are rarely encouraged or confident to take it. Companies such as Diageo are setting the standard here, offering 26 weeks paternity leave at full pay to help families bond. Sydney-based Diageo Account Manager Chris Bailey says, “The time that parental leave offered to become a family of four was simply invaluable. It really was the best time of our lives, where I feel I developed into a stronger parent and partner, which has had a significant long-term impact on us as a family." 

Women and men won’t equally have the same roles at work until they also share the same roles at home, such as parenting and housekeeping.

There’s a lot to unpack here. What are your thoughts?

*For the purposes of this article I have chosen a male/female partnership, but acknowledge that families are made up of all combinations of genders and non-binary people.