BRISBANE, Australia—Competition Minister Andrew Leigh says the gender pay gap can be further cut if the impact of “greedy jobs” in Australia can be reduced.
The term, coined by Harvard University Professor Claudia Goldin, refers to high-paying professions where workers get paid more when they work a greater number of hours than the usual schedule.
Think corporate bankers, law firm partners, or high-level managers who work late into the night burning the midnight oil, or cutting short their weekends to work on a deal.
“There are certain jobs in society—think CEOs, judges, or even senior politicians—which are not readily divisible, they can’t be done on a part-time basis,” Minister Leigh told The Epoch Times on March 8.
“Those jobs tend to earn very high salaries, but because they can’t be shared, they’re not particularly amenable to people who take on caring duties [and] we know disproportionately women have done the lion’s share of caring duties,” he added.
“So greedy jobs tend to be male-dominated jobs. The more we can learn the lessons of occupations that have allowed job sharing, the quicker we‘ll close the gender pay gap, and the more productive we’ll be as a country,” Mr. Leigh said.
“Claudia Goldin gives the example of law versus pharmacy. Law has a lot more ‘greedy jobs’ than pharmacy, law also has bigger part-time penalties, and bigger gender pay gaps. Pharmacy has done well allowing IT systems to permit a handoff between coworkers, it has a whole lot more part-timers, and it’s a more productive and a better occupation for that.”
Mr. Leigh said he would like to see more action against greedy jobs from corporations to “do the right thing.”
“This is in the interest of firms’ bottom lines. Pharmacists are better off for being able to employ a wider share of the population,” he said.
Mr. Leigh was launching his latest book, The Shortest History of Economics, in Brisbane along with federal Treasurer Jim Chalmers, who delivered remarks at the event while acknowledging International Women’s Day.
Senator Gallagher said the average gender pay gap in Australia was 12 percent in favour of men, with the difference in total remuneration between the two genders reaching 21.7 percent in organisations with over 100 employees.
She said the government would use its purchasing power to better support gender equality outcomes.
“Every year, the government spends $70 billion to procure goods and services,” she told the National Press Club. “And we think there’s more that can be done to make sure women are getting a fair slice of that spending.”
The government plans to require companies to meet gender targets (including quotas in boardrooms), flexible work arrangements for women, and more policies to deal with sexual harassment, before awarding them government contracts.
“Not only will businesses have to set targets, but they'll have to show progress towards them,” Ms. Gallagher said.
This comes on top of new government (taxpayer-funded) superannuation payments on top of paid parental leave benefits.
