The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated social and economic inequality for women. Women have lost ground in the workforce and have been slower to return to work than men.
‘I’m sure you’ll be able to take on a few extra tasks.’
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Most women are not working full-time during most of their working lives, which holds them back from management positions and accentuates the pay gap with men, according to data released on Monday.
Up to 40% of all jobs now are tipped to be taken over by AI and robots in the next few decades. My grandmother, born on a farm almost a century ago, has some advice on how to cope.
Victoria’s closure of child-care services may be necessary, but it will put pressures on parents and likely drive down women’s workforce participation.
Centrelink queues shocked Australians but long before COVID-19 Western Sydney had job-poor neighbourhoods with very high unemployment rates.
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Western Sydney’s growth-driven boom had ended before COVID-19 hit. Some neighbourhood unemployment rates were 2-3 times the metropolitan average, with female workforce participation as low as 43%.
With most new jobs going to women, their workforce participation rate is growing at nine times the rate for men. But, while participation is on track for parity in a decade, pay is another matter.
In one study, only a quarter of respondents felt able to discuss their menopausal symptoms with their manager.
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Workforce participation rates for older women have increased greatly, but most workplaces have yet to realise the benefits of helping them to manage the impacts of menopause.
A mother in a low-income family can lose 85-95% of her earnings from working more days to income tax, loss of benefits and childcare costs.
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Miranda Stewart, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University
An 85-95% effective marginal tax rate means the second earner in a low-income family can increase from two days’ work a week to three, four or five days and be better off by only about $4,000 a year.
The legacy of capping funding for universities will be a less skilled future workforce, and an Australian youth that miss out on the educational opportunities available to their parents.
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Discontinuing the demand driven system will mean less people are able to get a higher education, particularly groups of people who are already at a disadvantage.
Technology offers older Australians a wealth of ways to redefine later life.
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Shadow minister for employment Brendan O'Connor said the labour force participation rate was in “free fall” and that this showed “people have stopped looking for work”. Is that true?
Governments need to put youth at the forefront of policy making.
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Poor economic performance and high levels of skilled migration are standing in the way of young Australians entering the labour market for the first time.
Many grandparents compromise their own working lives to enable their daughters and daughters-in-law to go to work.
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The role of grandparents as the biggest providers of childcare is a huge blind spot in policy-making for workforce participation, childcare, early childhood education and retirement.
Australians are living and working longer, marrying later and earning more that past generations.
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Divorce rates are on the decline in Australia, people are marrying and having children later in life, and more of us live alone. Our experts respond to the new report on Australia’s welfare.
Social Services Minister Scott Morrison announces that a A$3.5 billion child-care subsidy will begin from July 1 2017 if the Senate passes previously rejected Family Tax Benefit savings.
AAP/Paul Miller
Lost in the political debate about subsidising child care is the fact that universal free preschool care has been abandoned as a goal of good social policy.
Women and older people form two ‘armies’ Treasurer Joe Hockey is hoping will help protect Australia’s future prosperity.
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