Equal Pay Day: Men often choose higher paid professions

Creating a family friendly workplace is key to bridging the pay gap, according to a group of Australian business women.

For Equal Pay Day today, Tom Elliott spoke with Sandra Cook from Business and Professional Women Australia, which has created the Equal Pay Alliance.

The group is calling for more flexible work arrangements and accessible childcare in order to bridge the pay gap.

Sandra said men often simply study subjects at school which lead to higher paying jobs.

“Men often choose higher paid work such as an engineer or mining,” she said.

“They’re not family friendly work hours.

“We need men to step up the caring responsibilities and share them with women.”

Tom suggested women were perhaps not as good at negotiating as men.

“Men are better negotiators than women,” he said.

“Women often say, ‘pay me what you think I’m worth,’ and so get paid less.”

Click PLAY above to hear the full discussion