Gender earnings and part-time pay in Australia 1990-1998

In October 1991 significant changes were made to the Australian industrial relationssystem aimed at giving primacy to enterprise (decentralized) bargaining and introducingmore flexibility into the system. It was widely predicted that the changes would adverselyimpact on the relative pay position of...

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Main Author: Preston, Alison
Format: Working Paper
Published: Curtin University of Technology 2003
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/19353
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author Preston, Alison
author_facet Preston, Alison
author_sort Preston, Alison
building Curtin Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description In October 1991 significant changes were made to the Australian industrial relationssystem aimed at giving primacy to enterprise (decentralized) bargaining and introducingmore flexibility into the system. It was widely predicted that the changes would adverselyimpact on the relative pay position of women and of part-time workers, in particular.Between 1990 and 1998, however, the gross gender wage ratio amongst full-timeemployees converged four percentage points to 88.8 per cent; corresponding convergencein the part-time labour market was equal to 10.3 percentage points. Decompositionsreported in this paper show that the convergence in the part-time labour market derivedfrom compositional shifts; the entry of less qualified and less experienced males intopart-time employment. Wage effects, specifically the experience of faster wage growthfor women relative to men, explain observed convergence in the full-time labour market.A number of possible reasons for the latter, including the potentially negative effects ofdeunionization on male wages, are advanced in the paper.
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spelling curtin-20.500.11937-193532017-01-30T12:13:27Z Gender earnings and part-time pay in Australia 1990-1998 Preston, Alison In October 1991 significant changes were made to the Australian industrial relationssystem aimed at giving primacy to enterprise (decentralized) bargaining and introducingmore flexibility into the system. It was widely predicted that the changes would adverselyimpact on the relative pay position of women and of part-time workers, in particular.Between 1990 and 1998, however, the gross gender wage ratio amongst full-timeemployees converged four percentage points to 88.8 per cent; corresponding convergencein the part-time labour market was equal to 10.3 percentage points. Decompositionsreported in this paper show that the convergence in the part-time labour market derivedfrom compositional shifts; the entry of less qualified and less experienced males intopart-time employment. Wage effects, specifically the experience of faster wage growthfor women relative to men, explain observed convergence in the full-time labour market.A number of possible reasons for the latter, including the potentially negative effects ofdeunionization on male wages, are advanced in the paper. 2003 Working Paper http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/19353 Curtin University of Technology fulltext
spellingShingle Preston, Alison
Gender earnings and part-time pay in Australia 1990-1998
title Gender earnings and part-time pay in Australia 1990-1998
title_full Gender earnings and part-time pay in Australia 1990-1998
title_fullStr Gender earnings and part-time pay in Australia 1990-1998
title_full_unstemmed Gender earnings and part-time pay in Australia 1990-1998
title_short Gender earnings and part-time pay in Australia 1990-1998
title_sort gender earnings and part-time pay in australia 1990-1998
url http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/19353