Equal Pay Day - 4 September 2010

Equal Pay Day was held on Tuesday 1 September in Australia in 2009, to signify the point into a year that a woman must work to earn what a man made in the previous financial year.

In 2010, that day has shifted further out to 4 September, representing an increase in the gender pay gap from 17% in 2009 to 18% in 2010.

Do you believe in equal pay for equal work?

BPW Australia does, But not everyone gets it.

Here are the facts:

  • Women working full-time, year-round in Australia are paid only about 82 cents for every dollar earned by men
  • A 1% decrease, rather than the 1% increase witnessed, in the 2009 gender pay gap of 17% to 16% would have increased GDP per capita by approximately $260 which equates to approx. $5,497Million or 0.5% of GDP
  • The 2009 pay gap of 17% was estimated to cost the Australian economy $93Billion.  That cost just got higher
  • Lower wages mean less lifetime earnings for women giving them a lifetime of fewer choices
  • Some women in CEO and finance positions earn less than half of their male equivalents
  • The pay gap is higher in the private sector (21.7%) than in the public sector (12.1%)
  • The average superannuation payout to a woman is projected to be $150,000, that’s half of the average payout to a man in 2010-11
  • The 18% gender pay gap is a national average that opens up to over 29.3% in some industry sectors
  • Pay inequity reveals systemic discrimination and continued under-valuation of women’s work
  • Equal pay for women raises family income which means more money to spend on food, housing and child care
  • Single mothers and working families lose thousands of dollars annually to the wage gap
  • A NATSEM report released in March 2010 shows that simply being a woman accounts for 60% of the difference between men's and women's earnings
  • If things don't change, the average 25 year old male will earn $2.4Million over the next forty years; for the average 25 year old female, that figure is just $1.5Million