5 minute read
Gender & higher education stats 2020
from Agenda 2020
by NTEU
Terri MacDonald , Policy & Research Officer
According to the Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA), Australia’s national gender pay gap as of August 2020 is 14%, reflecting that, on average, women need to work an additional 59 days to earn the same as male counterparts. The gender pay gap (GPG) favours men across all industries and all levels of the workforce (highest in financial services, real estate and construction), and the full-time average weekly earnings for women are $253.60 less than for men.
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Education and the gender pay gap
Of all women aged 20-24, 91.1% have attained year 12 qualifications or above, compared to 88.8% of men in the same age bracket. Of all women aged 25-29, 44.5% have achieved a bachelor degree or above, compared to 32.2% of similarlyaged men.
Women represent 58.7% of domestic students in universities or other institutions. This has risen from 57.6% in 2007.
Higher education workforce
For those working in tertiary education the total remuneration pay gap is half that for all industries.
Our sector is 58% women and 42% men, compared to 50/50 for all industries.
While higher education is feminised, the more senior the level, the greater the proportion of men, with only 25% of women at a level above senior lecturer.
WGEA headcount figures reveal that 51% of Level A staff are women. However, this is likely to be under estimated, as casual/sessional staff are usually appointed at Level A, and are not included in the Government’s FTE data on levels.
Graduate gender pay gap
The 2020 Graduate Outcomes Survey has found that high level undergraduate labour market outcomes are broadly similar for males and females, with the notable exception that female graduates earn less than male graduates.
In 2017, the gender gap in graduate median salaries was $2,600 or 4.3%. In 2020, for the same cohort of graduates three years later, the gender gap in graduate median salaries had increased to $6,900 or 9.4%.
Previous research suggests that one of the key factors contributing to the gender gap in salaries is that females tend to graduate from fields of education that achieve lower salaries (e.g. Creative Arts) whereas males tend to graduate from more highly remunerated fields (e.g. Engineering).
However, female graduates often earn less than male graduates within the same field of education. For example, undergraduate study areas with largegender gaps in salaries three years out include Architecture and Built Environment, Health Services and Support, Social Work, Nursing, and Business and Management.
There are some exceptions where females are paid more than males such as in Creative Arts, at 4%. There are also some study areas with no, or very little gender gap in salaries such as Computing and Information Systems, where salaries are equal; Engineering, where males are paid 1% more than females three years after graduation.
Postgraduate gender pay gap
The gender gap in salaries is more pronounced at postgraduate coursework level than for undergraduates.
In 2017, four to six months after completion of their studies, the median salary of male postgraduate coursework graduates was $15,900 or 16.9% higher than females.
In 2020, this gap has increased to $17,200 in dollar terms, which represents 15.8% of the full-time median female salary, three years after graduation.
The gender gap in salaries among postgraduate coursework graduates persists across all study areas, in particular, in Medicine, Business and Management, Health Services & Support and Science and Mathematics, with gender pay gaps in excess of 15% three years after course completion.
This is likely due to a range of factors such as occupation, age, experience, personal factors and possible inequalities within workplaces.
Gender impact of COVID
Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) workforce figures show that, to date, job losses have impacted men and women quite differently.
Overall employment was down by 7.5% between 14 March and 18 April. Female employment dropped by 8.1%, male employment dropped by 6.2%.
In terms of working hours, women lost 11.5% of the hours worked in March, compared to men who lost 7.5%
In June, the labour force participation rate fell by 2.5 percentage points. The impact has been greater on women with an extra 2.9% of women out of the labour force compared to an extra 2.1% of men.
Younger women have been disproportionately affected in terms of job losses. ABS data on payroll shows that employment fell by 18% for women under the age of 20 years, compared with 13% of men under 20 years.
Women are over-represented in the industries most affected by the COVID- 19 pandemic including food and accommodation services, the arts and recreation fields, education and health services. Three-quarters of health professionals, including pharmacists and medical scientists – many of whom were deemed to be essential services – are women.
Women are over-represented in casual and short-term contract employment, especially in higher education (1.5 times more likely to be insecurely employed). Women are more likely to be over-represented in those ineligible to receive JobKeeper as they often work in short-term roles for less than 12 months.
In higher education, the impact is two-fold as university workers are ineligible for the JobKeeper subsidy. Women are also overrepresented in job losses in non-academic areas.
The super gap gets worse
The Morrison Federal Government’s response to COVID-19 controversially included allowing workers to withdraw up to $10,000 from their superannuation accounts in the June quarter 2020 and a further $10,000 during the September quarter 2020.
According to preliminary data, women have eroded their superannuation balances more than men, the ramifications of which will compound over time and seriously undermine their financial security in retirement.
Sources: Women in University workforce 2018 (Dept of Education and Training); NTEU analysis from Dept of Education and Training Data cube (2019); QILT survey program, including the 2020 Graduate Outcomes Survey – Longitudinal (GOS-L), reported in 2020 Graduate Outcomes Survey – Longitudinal (GOS-L) Medium-term graduate outcomes report, Aug 2020. Social Research Centre (funded by DESE); Financial Standard, Super release widens gender gap: AMP, Ally Selby, 29 May 2020; Covid-19 early release scheme, 11 May 2020, Australian Prudential Regulation Authority.