Paid maternity leave: a fix for pay inequity?

Posted by Jenni Colwill on 14 July 2009 | 1 Comments

Tags: paid maternity leave, pay inequity, HILDA, Ian Watson,

A recent news story about research by Ian Watson showing that whichever way you look at the data, women managers earn about 25% less than their male counterparts is no great surprise to anyone who reads this blog. Apparently between 70-90% of this wage gap cannot be explained, as the characteristics of male and female managers in the research sample are remarkably similar.

Watson concludes that as much as 70% of the wage gape is simply because of the fact that women managers are female. He also says that becoming a manager is, overall, about twice as likely for a man as a woman.

In looking for reasons for this, Watson says his findings reinforce earlier studies that found that senior managers 'treat all workers as if they are men', and in so doing, fail to provide support in the form of child care, parental leave or flexible work schedules.

Come on, paid maternity leave.

But somehow I don't think that the remedy for pay inequity will be quite that simple.