Equal Pay in Australia

Negotiation Strategies The author of this report is asked to review a situation, both in general and in particular, as it relates to gender pay equity in Australia and how decentralization has led to a lower performance threshold as far as that goes.

The questions that will be answered are what the fundamental problems are for women in the workplace as part of remuneration goes, how the author would prepare for negotiations given the state of affairs that exist and to define an interest (two of them) and the positions that will underpin them. While women have traditionally been the homemakers and second chair in the workplace over the course of history, those women that wish to be career minded should not encounter a glass ceiling and they should be paid equally.

Negotiation Strategies The barriers that exist are not hard to miss. In Australia as well as around the world, the man has typically been the breadwinner and dominant force in the household. Even today, women are more likely to pause or entirely forgo a career due to family concerns, balancing priorities and resources with a husband (or family) and so forth. However, this cannot and does not explain the disparities that persist and indeed are getting worse due to the path of decentralization in the workplace.

Such a pattern and outcome requires that women mobilize as a group and negotiate the pay and benefits they are entitled to under the law and under ethical business practice (Shachar, 2011; van Wanrooy, 2009). The fundamental problem that exists is that women are often deemed to be second-class citizens when it comes to work. They are deemed to be more emotional and "feeling" in the workplace rather than being assertive and willing to demand what they want in life and in a career.

What this translates to in the end is women who are marginalized and passed over when they should not be and the common pattern of women pausing their career for a homemaker role (for some time or permanently) is much more common than it is for a man to do the same or to be a "stay at home dad." Since the legislative and statute requirements of equal pay are slipping due to decentralization, this means that pay equity is slipping as well (Shachar, 2011; van Wanrooy, 2009; ACTU, 2015).

As for how to prepare for the meeting to negotiating a change in this pattern, this would require a meeting of the minds with all of the women. The problem, as outlined by the case problem, is that individualized contracts and negotiations are leading to contracts and pay structures that favor men much more than women. As such, a woman trying to split off and do their own negotiation is simply not going to work much to most of the time.

Thus it must be stressed in the group that the group must remain unified and together so as to leverage the best results for the group. In a perfect world, each person could be judged based on their merits and get they pay they are entitled to. However, that is not going to work as well, at least for now. As such, keeping a tightly knit will be required in the short-term until the landscape tilts in favor individual women again (Shachar, 2011; van Wanrooy, 2009).

As for the positions that can be taken and the strategies that will be coupled with that, there are a few things that should be mentioned. First, men and women are equal in the eyes of the law and thus they should be paid the same under the law. If this means that the meritocracy has to be stripped out of it and people are paid based on tenure and position, then that will have to work for now.

Indeed, there is something somewhat unfair about all people being paid the same regardless of effort. However, things like tenure and rank are very clear cut and are thus not subject to being handled differently by different people. Another position is that the group can and will act as a cohesive unit against the employers that the women work for. If wielded properly, this can really put a damper on the employers that the women work for.

This is why the pre-negotiating meeting regarding the stressing of remain a unit is important. Again, there should be a day in the not-so-distant future where leveraging resources as a group and each person being judged on their own merit is the norm. However, the decentralization and other factors have made this a non-starter for now. In other words, the women are a group, they demand equal pay and they will assert themselves as a unit if their demands are not meant.

While certain types of strikes and so forth can be disruptive.