The Australian Education Union understands that gender pay inequity unfairly and persistently impacts women's working lives, their families, their choices and the prosperity of their countries.

AEU members' are impacted by gender pay inequity and are encouraged to find out more on how to campaign for pay equity.

What is Pay Equity?

"Equal pay" addresses situations in which men and women do the same work, and now must receive the same pay. In Australia this principle was legally established in 1969.

"Pay equity" is equal pay for work of equal or comparable value, and is less well understood. Pay equity also assess disparity in conditions based on the undervaluation of, or discriminatory practices within, female employment.

Pay equity requires employers to pay female jobs at least the same as male jobs if they are of comparable value. In reassessing the value placed on jobs stereotyped toward a particular gender, a fairer assessment of value is based on the levels of skill, effort, responsibility and working conditions involved in doing the work.

It is argued that pay equity, (and therefore truer wage justice between men and women) can best be achieved where cases can be run in industrial settings and where re-evaluation is argued extensively to prove that the skill levels are comparable but valued differently.

Why hasn't it been achieved?

Despite equal opportunity and anti-discrimination legislation, workplace bargaining and the wage setting mechanisms in Australia still perpetuate either undervaluation of the skills women often posses or inflexibilities within workplaces that see women often precluded from reaching positions of higher pay or additional bonuses/conditions.

Some people argue the difference between men's and women's pay is solely the result of women's choices, not discrimination. However this is misleading.

Instead, it is caused by institutionalized conditions like the permanent under-evaluation of (un)paid work done by women, a biased division of housework, and the attitude that childcare is the responsibility of women. The gendered patterns in the labour market result from biased social and legal conditions rather than individual career choices. It results in the fact that mostly women take time out of the workforce and hence face a reduction of income, superannuation and career progression.

Rather than correcting the gendered values placed on some job skills, action to date to remedy the pay gap between men and women has assumed that simply by removing employment barriers and directly discriminatory wage setting, women will be allowed to make the choice to seek employment in higher paying occupations. This does nothing to challenge cultural beliefs in workplaces let alone remove the burden that taking on greater care and unpaid domestic labour has for women because of traditional gender roles in society.

How does Pay Equity relate to the teaching profession?

Education International reports that female-dominated occupations are paid less than jobs usually performed by men. The UNESCO World Education Report (2000) indicates that women represent 94 percent of teachers in pre-primary education, 58 percent of teachers in primary education and 47 percent in secondary education.

When women are paid less than men for work of equal or similar value, it goes against the basic principles of justice on the job. Pay equity supports freedom, dignity and the well-being of families and communities.

Pay equity is also an important strategy for unions because it will lift the pay of women and men who are underpaid because their job is not seen as being as important or as demanding as other jobs.

Pay equity supports economic growth. Low salaries have specific consequences for consumption habits. Raising the wages for female workers would imply increased purchasing power and lead to positive effects for the whole economy.

Pay equity is a union issue. Pay equity campaigns in the workplace can be important tools for recruiting and involving women in unions. These tools make unions relevant to women.

Pay equity is an issue for employers and by working with their employees, through their union and in workplace consultative bodies much can be done to support culture change and reverse gendered behaviours in employment practice through workplace audits, monitoring, reporting and planning.

Pay equity is also an issue for governments. Accordingly, in Australia there are some clear changes that could be made to reduce the gender pay gap which were identified in a recent parliamentary inquiry – though the federal government is yet to act on these recommendations. For Australia to achieve true pay equity, the AEU argued in its submission to the in pay equity inquiry, that Government should make the following changes.

How can I help the campaign?

-	download their Pay Equity Resource Kit   

-	Find out about the Equal Pay Alliance