News Releases

Nearly 10,000 people graduated with MBAs from University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business between 1990 and 2006.

In 2009, three economists decided to study a quarter of those graduates. They asked a detailed set of questions about the jobs they’d held since graduation, how many hours they worked, where they worked, and what they had earned each year.

The researchers wanted to know how gender would affect the career trajectories of all these newly minted business school graduates.

"We decided to focus on MBAs, because if you think about women’s access to the top echelons, the corporate sector is one where they have had a particularly difficult time," says Marianne Bertrand, an economist at the University of Chicago who led the study.

Read the full article here.

Women don’t choose to make less money than men. But that’s often the criticism levelled when we talk about the gender pay gap, or the fact that women, on average, make only 79 cents for every dollar a man earns.

The argument typically is: Women look for work in lower-paying professions, so of course they make less than men.

Elise Gould, a senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute, has heard that claim a lot since she published research showing that women earn $4 an hour less than men right out of college. Gould and EPI researcher Jessica Schieder published a paper on Wednesday explaining why the pay gap has little to do with real choice.

“People were not understanding the full picture,” Gould told The Huffington Post.

Read full article here.

Workplace Gender Equality Agency | Gender pay gap biggest in manager ranks

The Conversation | Gender equality reporting is not 'red tape'

The Conversation | Drinking 'daughter water' won't be enough to deliver pay equity 

The Conversation | Why the gender pay gap remains invisible for employers

BPW South Australia | Equal Pay Day Newsletter 2014 [PDF]

Today marks Equal Pay Day; the end of financial year for women workers. Why? Because in 2014 Australian women must work an additional 66 days to earn the same wage as Australian men. The 2014 gender pay gap is the worst since records began in 1984; men working full-time earn 18.2% more than women. In sectors like health and finance the inequality is even worse. Victorian Trades Hall Council Secretary, Luke Hilakari, described the widening gap as a "national shame", and pointed to Federal and State policies contributing to the crisis. "The Federal Government's proposed reintroduction of individual flexibility agreements will force women to trade away workplace entitlements like weekend rates if they have caring responsibilities. The Trades Hall, representatives of Victorian workers, condemns Tony Abbott as the self-styled Minister for Women for presiding over policies which will directly contribute to widening inequality.

Friday 5 September 2014 is Equal Pay Day, a reminder of the additional 66 days from the end of the financial year 2013-2014, the average woman has had to work to earn what the average man earned in that previous year. Equal Pay Day is based on the calculation of the national gender pay gap, which is currently 18.2%, the highest gender pay gap recorded in 20 years. economic Security4Women is an alliance of women's organisations united in the belief that economic wellbeing and financial security are essential for all women and will enable women of all ages to take their equal place in society.

Equal Pay Day today marks the 67 days the average Australian woman has worked beyond the end of the financial year to earn the same annual salary as a man. ACTU President Ged Kearney said Equal Pay Day highlights Australia's record high gender pay gap and the issues facing working women. Under the first 12 months of the Coalition Government the gender pay gap has blown out to 18.2 per cent the worst it has been in 20 years. Ms Kearney said. That means that the average Australian woman who works 9am to 5pm is working for free from 3.38pm each day. Tony Abbott's response to this is to make things worse for working women now and when they retire.