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Gender Wage Gap Australia

Decent Essays

Introduction
Since the late 19th century, women have been struggling with the issue of not receiving the same amount of pay as men. The gender wage gap was not seen as a major issue until the 1960s, however, and unfortunately, it is still a major issue in our world today. (cite source). In the early 1900’s, World War I caused many men to leave their families behind to fight for their country. As a result of this, women had to take the responsibility of the male roles in the workforce. Women were expected to do the same jobs as men did before they were deployed, but were paid less to do so (cite source). This problem still exists in our world today. In 2011, it was proven that the weekly earnings for a female full-time worker is $684, compared …show more content…

Australia is an example of another place where the issue of the gender wage gap exists within their workforce. In 2016 there was a Global Gender Gap Report completed by the World Economic Forum, ranking the best to worst countries in the world for the gender wage gap. Australia was ranked 46 out of the 144 countries researched. (cite source). Therefore, the Australian government and the Workplace Gender Equality Agency, teamed up, gathered research, and completed a report comparing the earnings of men and women. In the key results, it was found that the average full-time weekly earnings for a male was $1,602.80, and the average full-time weekly earnings for a female was $1,325.10, with a 17.3% full-time gender wage gap. The highest percentage of the gender wage gap by industry is 30.0% in the financial and insurance services in Australia (cite source). Canada is another example of a place where the gender wage gap exists as well. Canada was ranked 35 out of the 144 countries researched (cite source). In Canada the average employment income a male earned in 2014 was $51,000, and the average employment income a female earned in 2014 was $34,900 (cite …show more content…

Kennedy. According to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the purpose of this act was to abolish discrimination based on gender in the workforce. It required men and women to receive equal pay for equal work. It states that employers may not pay unequal wages to men and women who perform the same job that require equal skill, effort, responsibility, and similar work conditions (cite source). Based on people’s opinions and what they believe in, they may assume the gender wage gap doesn’t matter or that it even exists. These people tend to believe that women, and their choices, are the reason they are earning less than men. According to an article published by Time, there are six reasons why women are not making the same amount of money as men. One of the reasons stated was that men work harder than women (cite source). According to the United States Department of Labor, women made up 46.4% of the civilian labor force in 2005. Also over the past decade (1995-2005), there have been roughly 17 million jobs created and women acquired 48.8% of these jobs (cite source). This disproves that women do not work as hard as men, because they make up almost half of the workforce. Another reason stated by the Time article was that men pursue higher-paying, more prestigious careers (cite

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