Emulating his hero, Donald Trump, Scott Morrison has taken to Twitter to tell we women we have never had it so good.
“Under Labor, the gender pay gap increased from 15.5% to 17.2%. Under our Government it has fallen to 14.5% and heading in right direction” tweeted ProMo, signing off with the very Trumpian “#Moretodo.”
One would hope that the gender pay gap would have decreased over the last five years – Scott’s cherry-picked figures are basically correct – but, as is his wont, he is not telling the whole truth.
According to a report published in August by the government’s own Workplace Gender Equality Agency, over the last 20 years, the gender pay gap was at its highest under the Abbott government in November 2014, at 18.5%.
As of May 2018, Australia’s full-time gender pay gap, based on ABS data of Average Weekly Earnings, was 14.6%, but there is a large disparity between different sectors, states and industries and an even greater gap when all payments are considered.
The gender pay gap was 18.4% in the private sector and 10.5% in the public sector.
Western Australia has the widest gender pay gap at 22.4% while South Australia and Tasmania have the smallest gender pay gaps at 9.8% and 9.7% respectively.
And we’re not all heading in the right direction as Morrison would have us believe. Over the last twelve months, the gender pay gap in the ACT and Queensland actually increased.
WGEA collects pay data annually from non-public sector organisations with 100 or more employees, covering more than 4 million employees in Australia. This data includes superannuation, bonuses and other additional payments, and reveals a far bleaker picture for women.
The full-time total remuneration gender pay gap based on WGEA data is 22.4%, meaning men working full-time earn nearly $26,527 a year more than women working full-time.
The gap is highest in Financial and Insurance Services with 26.6%, followed by Health Care and Social Assistance with 25.0% and Rental, Hiring and Real Estate Services with 24.1%.
It seems like women who ‘have a go’ are unlikely to ‘get a go’ under a PM who can’t see any problems with how they are treated.
#Moretodo indeed! Acknowledging the facts would be a good start.
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