Why the Gender Wage Gap Persists in Australia - Term Paper Example In other words, gender wage gap is a phenomenon in which females get lower salaries compared to their male counterparts in similar professions in the same organization. It is seen across the world and no country seems to be free from it. Even in advanced countries like Australia, America and Great Britain, gender wage gap is a fact rather than a myth. Gender wage gap is severe in Australia despite the fact that Australia succeeded recently in appointing its first woman prime minister. The gender pay gap is experienced at every level in the workplace in Australia, the land of the great Fair Go. In 2010, on average, women lag some 17 per cent behind in pay for equal work or work of same value and in some sectors, like finance and insurance this gender pay gap expands to a ripping 32 per cent. It is regularly reported that the top 200 companies listed on the Australian Stock Exchange pay their female Chief Financial and Chief Operating Officers on average 50 per cent less than their male equivalents (Dr. Stone, 2010). In Australia, any effort made to “decrease the gender wage gap would be significantly associated with an increase in women’s hours of work†(Vidyattama et al, 2009, p.13). In other words, organizations force the women employees to work more hours if they demand for more wages. Many of the Australian organizations are of the view that the productivity of men and women are different and therefore it is difficult for the women to deliver same results if they work same hours as that of men. There are many reasons cited for the widespread gender wage gap in Australia. However, gender factor and industry segregation are two of the major reasons for the gender wage gap in Australia. Gender factor as a reason for the persistence of gender wage gap in Australia An artifact of economic, industrial relations, social and cultural factors, combined with the biological and psychological attributes of all involved in decisions before and in the workplace. As much as action is taken in the legal and political arena to create equality, the players in the industrial relations system, consciously or not, both male and female, say that they have helped to (re)construct the gender wage gap (Christine, Ph.D, 2006). According to a report released by National Centre of Social Economic Modeling (NATSEM) in 2010, the gender factor accounted for 60 per cent of the wage gap between men and women (Australia's gender wage gap 'costs $93b', 2010). As in the case of other countries, one of the major reasons for gender wage gap in Australia is the wrong perceptions about the less productivity or fewer abilities of women employees compared to male employees. Biologically, it is believed or assumed that men are stronger both physically and mentally than women. There are many cases in which women succeeded in showing equal or more mental abilities than men. However, the general perception about women abilities in excelling in critical positions is very weak. That is why Australia forced to wait till recent times to have its first woman prime minister. It should be noted that countries like Israel, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka had women prime ministers in the twentieth century. But Australia forced to wait till twenty first century to have its first woman prime minister because of the wrong perceptions of the Australian public about the capabilities of women. It should be noted that India has a woman president at present for the first time in its history. Moreover, Germany also has a woman chancellor at present. In short, other countries pushed Australia far behind in recognizing the abilities of women. It should be noted that even women CEO’s in Australia are not ready to pay equal salaries to men
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1/13/2020 0 Comments Homework Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1Homework - Research Paper Example There is one owner and a few managers. The managers manage the employees who run the whole business. Thus, the hierarchical structure looks like a pyramid in which each upper level controls the lower one, and each lower level is accountable to its upper level position. It is not a tall hierarchy, but a flat model. We can say so because there are not many levels of positions and authorities in the hierarchy, since it is a small business started only a couple of years ago. That is why it has less than 50 employees. The span of control is also less, which means that there are only a few employees reporting to one manager, since it is a small organization. As stated earlier, the only IT function in this business is that this organization runs and maintains an internal database, which stores information about all its employees, customers, inventory, and competitors. This IT function helps the company to make decisions about future plans, prepare financial statements, and update the information regularly. HappyLife is a hospital that has around 500 employees, including higher authorities, doctors, nurses, technicians, lab operators, canteen boys, and so on. There is a long list of positions in the organization. This hospital started its business 20 years back and that is why it earns a great reputation in the city. It provides healthcare services to its patients, and has many branches located in other cities. This organization also enjoys a strong, rather much stronger, version of hierarchical structure, because there is a good assignment of positions and authorities at every level. Each level is checked by its senior level, and each upper level is responsible to maintain the lower one. So, we can say that there is a tall hierarchical structure in this organization, and not a flat one. Since it is a large business, and controls and maintains many employees and functions, we can say that it is a tall
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