The Fair Work Australia tribunal today found that the reason community service workers are paid less can be mostly attributed to the fact that the majority of workers are women.
While accepting that there are other factors contributing to the lower wages of community service workers, the tribunal did acknowledge that "gender has an important influence".
Overall, the tribunal concluded that:
"In order to give effect to the equal remuneration provisions in these complex circumstances, we consider that the proper approach is to attempt to identify the extent to which gender has inhibited wages growth in the SACS [social, disability and community services] industry and to mould a remedy which addresses that situation."
Maybe the feminist cause isn't lost after all.
I also found the following comment on the story interesting:
"The pay gap is about gender not only because "caring" work is often undervalued as women's work but also because when men enter this sector they rarely stay for long in frontline roles. Males are often quickly elevated to management (this is often their choice to avoid the wage penalties associated with frontline community services work); all you need to go to is a board of management meeting for a large NGO and you'll see the gender imbalance quickly disappears once we start talking proper salaries and conditions."
Hopefully these factors will also be taken into account when the tribunal later decides on how much should be added to the wages of those in the community service sector.
If you're interested in reading more about this exciting development, you can find the story here
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