Equal Pay, Equal Parenting?

Around many of our newspapers last weekend was an article called Equal Pay Still Just a Dream for Women. I read it with great interest today, not just out of empathy for women but with a realisation of this subject’s connection to something I was writing about a few days ago: the opportunity for men to spend more time with their kids. Again, as I write on this, I’m an Aussie drawing on the Australian situation and I wouldn’t like to project this onto the world, but it seems like once again, we’re a little behind the times on this…

Here’s just two excerpts from the article and then I’ll make the connection for new readers:

In 2008, nearly 40 years after the introduction of legislation for equal pay, women are still being paid up to 17 per cent less than their male counterparts. An Australian Institute of Management report found females are paid on average 12 per cent less than men.

and

McPhee (director of the Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Agency) has anecdotal evidence from women who say they are sitting next to men, doing the same job, but getting paid up to $30,000 less.

She is calling on employers to ensure they have transparent pay scales and promotion criteria, a meaningful work valuation assessment and flexible work practices for all staff.

She says the pay inequity cannot be blamed on women taking maternity leave or part-time work.

One of the things I referred to in that earlier post (Supporting Dad) was that inequality for women in the workplace not only has obvious and unfair consequences for women, but also has a negative effect on male parents. (I hope my female friends of the other gender will forgive me for seeming to hijack the debate on fair pay and fair opportunities for women).

I just think this has impact on family life as a whole: many mothers are wanting more time/responsibility at work and/or the opportunity to simply make more money for the family, while the dads are out there working more than they want to or carrying more responsibility than allows for a more involved role at home. One of the positive consequences of fixing the pay/opportunity gap between boys and girls at work may well be the lessening of pressure on men to be the main breadwinner, freeing up time and energy to do hands-on parenting stuff.

On a personal note, I write all of this as a guy whose wife has earned more than him for ten of our 14 years of marriage. And I’m fully ok with that. We’ve achieved a great balance of roles and responsibilities as parents because of both her opportunities to work at higher levels of responsiblity and pay AND her full support of me taking a more engaged and present role with the kids. I thank her for that.