Women up to their early 30s now earn more than men per hour on average, new research by the e61 Institute has found.
The analysis also found that women under 35 are more likely to find work than men, with an unemployment rate of 5.5% compared to 6.5% for their male counterparts.
This is the largest gap in two decades and reverses patterns from the mining boom when young men had better employment outcomes.
Overall, the hourly gender pay gap has come down from 11.5% to 8% over the past decade.
The e61 research paper titled How the Care Economy is Reshaping the Labour Market found that rising wages in the care economy accounted directly for about 0.5 percentage points of this reduction. Other factors include rising female educational attainment and an increased participation from prime-age female workers.
“The sharp expansion of the formal care sector and relatively high wage growth in the sector, driven in part by Fair Commission decisions, has significantly improved employment and pay for women, especially young women,” said e61 Institute research economist Matthew Maltman.
“Women are moving into care roles in far greater numbers than men from unemployment and also from lower-paid, high-turnover sectors such as retail and hospitality.”
Post-pandemic, the average hourly wage in care for 20–24-year-olds has been around $3.50 higher than the economy-wide average, and over $5 higher than in the male-dominated construction sector.
“While care jobs are typically low-paying overall, they represent relatively high-paying roles for younger workers, thereby lifting the hourly pay of young women in particular,” said Mr Maltman.
“While men face no formal barriers to working in care, and many already do, deep-seated gender norms and social factors have been slow to shift.”
Despite recent wage gains, the research noted that care jobs still lag most other jobs on flexibility, pay, opportunities for progression, and overall job satisfaction.
The analysis also found the expansion of the care sector has improved overall job stability.
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