ALLAN ALDWORTH, HOST: It's Allan and Carly on this Monday morning. Now today is Equal Pay Day and we're chatting with Kate Thwaites MP, Assistant Minister for Women. Kate, thank you very much for coming on the show. How are you doing today?
KATE THWAITES, ASSISTANT MINISTER FOR SOCIAL SECURITY, AGEING AND WOMEN: I am well, thank you, and it's good to be with you today talking Equal Pay Day. It is really important that we keep closing the gender pay gap and make sure that women are paid as they should be.
CARLY PORTCH, HOST: Absolutely. And today, it marks 50 days into the new financial year, which marks the extra amount of days that us women have to work on average, just to make the same as our male counterparts. That just seems like way too big of a gap.
THWAITES: It does Carly, it is too big of a gap. So yes, you're absolutely right, at the moment the national gender pay gap is 11.5%. So what that means is for every dollar on average that a man earns, a woman earns around 89 cents. So that's about $230 a week that women are not being paid, that men are being paid. The good news is the gender pay gap has been closing. There are things the government's doing that have helped to close that gap, particularly increasing wages in areas that are typically dominated by women, like aged care and childcare, where we've been lifting wages. And that's helping to close the gender pay gap. We've also been asking companies or requiring companies, in fact, to publish the gender pay gap that exists in their businesses as well, so that they can see actually what's going on and the action that's needed. But there is still more work that we need to do, because obviously women are a really valued part of our community and our economy, and we've got to pay them as such.
PORTCH: Absolutely we do. Now, you touched on a point there where companies have to disclose now if they are paying equal pay, is that a legal requirement because it is now illegal to not, I guess, pay a woman the same as a man for the same amount of work? So are big companies being forthcoming and transparent, or is this actually now a legal requirement?
THWAITES: It is absolutely a legal requirement for them to report it, and it is a legal requirement that you do have to pay women the same wage as a man for the same work. Why we still have a gender pay gap is because of those reasons I was talking about that often women are working in industries that are lower paid. So if you think about childcare, for instance, heavily dominated by women, as opposed to, say, trades which are heavily dominated by men, a tradesperson is often paid a lot more than an early educator or childcare worker. So we need to lift the wages in those sectors where women dominate. We do also need to look at discrimination more broadly in the workforce. And again, that goes to if men and women are doing the same job, then absolutely it is a law that they have to be paid the same amount. But what often happens also is that we know that women might miss out on a promotion that goes to a man, or there might be a role that's more technical and therefore more highly paid and again, that might go to a man. So that's the type of thing we're trying to unpick by having companies publish their gender pay gap as well, so that they can see what's going on within their own business.
ALDWORTH: I've always wondered about industries like childcare and also aged care as well, like they do get paid so low. And I know this 15% has come in, but those companies tend to make a lot of money. Why is it that they pay so low?
THWAITES: It is such a good question. And I think historically, not just in Australia, but in Western countries, we really undervalued caring work. It is actually a huge part of our economy. And we've sort of come from this notion that it's not as valuable as the bloke who goes into the office and holds the meeting and speaks to the company, but it is actually incredibly difficult. And they are caring for people who we value and want to show respect to in our community.
PORTCH: Kate, thank you so much for joining us today. And thank you for fighting the good fight for us women. One day we will see that pay gap closed. It's good to see that you guys are actively working on it, it is crazy that we are still in 2024 having to try and fix things. But we need to keep talking about this and we need to keep working on it. Thank you so much for joining us this morning.