The State Should Stay Out of the Employment Relationship

The national gender pay gap has raised to 18.2% in Australia in a study by the Workplace Gender Equality Agency, This means that for every dollar a man makes, on average a woman will make 82 cents. This essentially makes Australian women second

Ever since the 1970s Australia has welcomed people from all cultures and prides itself of being a multicultural nation. It is now one of the most culturally diverse countries on the planet with almost half of all Australians either born overseas or have at least one parent who was. The basic norms that make a multicultural society like Australia's possible are human rights. They are the standards that guide interactions between people which encourage mutual respect and equality. However there are groups and individuals in Australia who deviate away from these norms and do not treat those from other cultures with the respect and dignity they are entitled to.

Organisations are a key to understanding gender inequality. gender inequality within organisations has been debated for several years and yet still today is a touchy subject with organisations being discriminative right from the interview stage. Some organisations prefer to hire a man rather than a women because women are more likely to take maternity leave and days off to look after sick kids they are considered 'weaker' than men even though women may perform better than men at certain tasks within an organisation and yet still may receive a lack of encouragement from men. Formal rights have now been put in place in certain country's though not all countries have these rights in place In certain countries they have laws in place thats state that women cannot own land or property and in certain institutions and organisations they go through terrible actions such as violence and sexual harassment. In Australia we have the violence against women's act and the civil rights act for women so that they are treated equally but these certain acts don't stop women from being discriminated against at work where women earn 81c to a mans

Despite sweeping economic and social changes in Australia, the gender pay gap remains unchanged. At the current rate the Workplace Gender Equality Agency estimates it to take 50 years for women’s average income to be equal to that of men in Australia. That is in a well developed first-world country, other countries including second and third-world countries are beyond imagination.

Racial Discrimination involves any act where a person is treated unfairly or vilified because of their race, colour, descent, national or ethnic origin, religion or belief. Racism impacts directly on the full enjoyment of individual’s human rights, in particular the right to equality (Szoke, 2012, para 11).

However, it is widely acknowledged that pay inequality has persisted for decades in Australia, as is evidenced by the gender pay gap (Australian Human Rights Commission, n.d.). Over the past three decades the gender pay gap in Australia has fluctuated between 15% and 18%, equating to women earning only 84c for every dollar that a man earns (Pocock et al, 2013:605; Pocock et al, 2013:605; Australian Human Rights Commission, 2014:22). In other words, in order for women to earn the same salary as a man, they would need to work an additional 64 days annually (Australian Human Rights Commission, 2014:32). Furthermore, between 2006 and 2010 Australia fell from 15th to 23rd on the Global Gender Gap, and then again to 24th in 2013 (Noble & Pease, 2011:31; Australian Human Rights Commission, 2014:22). These decreases were the result of the persisting gender pay gap, as in 2010 Australia ranked a low 59th for wage equality (Noble & Pease,

Australian Anti-discrimination law has a relatively short history dating back to the mid 1970s, which is 70 years later than the Commonwealth of Australian Constitution Act 1900. Although not being officially identified, the first Australian anti-discrimination legislation was enacted in the 1960s, following the dismantlement of the “White Australian” policy. This first unofficial anti-discrimination legislation prohibited discrimination on the ground of race in certain aspects of employment. Shortly after, the Whitlam Labor Government passed the first official anti-discrimination legislation in 1975, which was the Racial Discrimination Act 1975(Cth) at the Federal level. (Chris Ronalds, 2012) Due to the fact that all states and territories

With the majority of law based rights already having been granted to women, more focus will be put on equalizing the individual perception of gender. Although it isn’t legal to discriminate against women for the amount of work they do, or to give better jobs to men, more women are currently and will continue to push for these thoughts to cease to exist at all. As of 1963, the Equal Pay Act requires that men and women doing equal work must receive equal pay (Cunnea 9). With men and women receiving equal pay for the same work, the only things that should end up mattering for employment other than the usual experience, qualifications, and reviews of past management are an individual person’s work ethic and

(Brennan 2013, p.68-69) Disability, under Social Security law, is based on your inability to work. You will meet the Social Security definition of disability if SSA finds that you cannot do the work you did before; you cannot adjust to other work because of your medical condition(s); and your disability has lasted or is expected to last for at least one year or result in death. This is a strict definition of disability. (Brennan 2013, p.68-69) With the way that the current laws and policies are defined it creates a burden to those that do not fit in the narrow box created.

Apart from the higher rate of unemployment and poverty, the discrimination is another serious concern in Australia. According to Human Rights Watch (n.d.), Australia does not accept the rights for same-sex couples to marry and restrict the rights of disabled person. Moreover, Australian woman remains face with discrimination and inequality in parts of their lives such as gender pay gap (Australian Human Rights Commission, n.d.). It obviously seems that Australia has the problem with the gender equality, and groups of people who most associate with this issue are the women, LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) and people with disabilities. The evidence clearly demonstrates that they against freedom from want. Firstly, the gender pay

Discriminatory and abusive behaviour towards another based on their race is of national and international concern. Australia has enacted anti-discrimination legislation in all jurisdictions, as well as the Racial Discrimination Act 1975 (Cth) [RDA]. They have also ratified international treaties concerning this issue. However, Australia has been criticized internationally for an ‘absence of any entrenched guarantee against racial discrimination’.

For so long, Australia has had a reputation knee-deep in racial discrimination and hostility. ‘The White Australia policy’ and ‘the Dictation Test’ are two of many causes to the negative misshape of how the world now sees the Australian nation.

In Australia over the last 20 years, it is documented that a person’s income and wages, differs based on one’s gender, known as the gender pay gap (The Conversation, 2017; Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA), 2017c). This paper will discuss what a gender pay gap is, various economic explanations for this gap, summarise sociological responses, and identify possible policy recommendations and their implications.

While the world has unanimously advanced and is more accepting of change, the workplace continues to be a place of discrimination, prejudice and inequality. Discrimination is broadly defined to ‘distinguish unfavourably’, isolate; and is context based (Pagura, 2012). Abrahams (1991) described the workplace as an ‘inhospitable place’ where gender disparity and wage gaps persist (Stamarski & Son Hing, 2015). Among other states and countries, the Australian government actively implements and passes laws to protect and maintain equal employment rights. While the objective of these laws is ‘to eliminate discrimination,’ the regulatory mechanisms in the legislation are largely ineffective at achieving this ultimate goal (Smith, 2008). However,

According to the data published by Australian Bureau of Statistics in May 2015, the full time average earnings of women is $284.20 or 17.9% less than the full time average earnings for men, this figure is calculated on the full time employees’ average weekly ordinary time earnings. The gender pay gap has hovered between 15% and 19% over the past two decades. The gender pay gap is the different between average weekly full time equivalent earnings of male and female, expressed as a percentage of earnings of male. The Workplace Gender Equality Agency highlights that the gender pay gap is resulting from a combination of factors, including the female graduates start on a lower wages then male graduates, even they are in the same industries and workplace and this is maintained throughout their careers, women are under presented in leadership and senior management position, women’s traditional caring role combined with lack of flexible work options that force them into casual an non-career part time jobs, men receive bigger attraction and performance bonuses than women and male dominated work has historically been better paid