A Time to Value - Media Pack

A Time to Value - Proposal for a National Paid Maternity Leave Scheme

Media Pack

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The contribution of paid maternity leave to economic security, workplace disadvantage and equality

Women incur significant workplace disadvantage from the onset of family responsibilities, not just in the immediate period following the birth of a child but over the longer term. This inevitably results in lessened economic security for women, including during retirement. The inequality of outcomes for men and women as a result of the shared duty of raising a family is self evident. While some may consider that this inequality is balanced by the communal nature of the family unit, modern family realities suggest that increasingly, economic disadvantage accrues to the individual.

Economic security

Paid Maternity Leave is a form of income replacement that allows the mother to provide full time care for her child for a limited period. To the extent of the payment provided it assists women with economic security at the time of the birth; this would be especially so for low income women who are, under Australia's current paid maternity leave arrangements, the least likely to have paid leave. A period of paid leave, even if relatively short, also enables women to afford a longer period of unpaid leave. In addition to this, paid maternity leave assists with the affordability of child-rearing.

A payment period of fourteen weeks at a sustainable rate enables families to maintain their standard of living and as the Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees' Association stated, the primary objective of a paid maternity leave scheme must be the provision of a payment which is sufficient to ensure that the woman and her family are able to live with dignity during the period before and after the child is born. [1]

Workplace disadvantage

It is not difficult to see how workplace disadvantage builds from child bearing; women are almost always the primary carer of dependent children and so frequently begin by leaving paid work entirely, or changing to a job of lesser pay but with better hours for the family, moving from full time to part time or casual work and by no longer being able to enjoy the mobility that leads to career or job advancement. Job disadvantage contributes to loss of economic security as measured by female/male earnings disparities, wealth holdings and later, to superannuation entitlements and financial security in old age.

This division of labour creates systemic discrimination. It is exacerbated by direct and indirect discrimination against women. Pregnant women are frequently dismissed or demoted and discrimination on the basis of family responsibilities figures highly in complaints to HREOC. While not a total solution, paid maternity leave can contribute to overcoming these barriers. Paid maternity leave will also make it easier for women to combine work and family responsibilities.

Equality

A cross section of the community considered that paid maternity leave would contribute to equality both directly and symbolically. For example, one submission stated that "[n]o civilised country, which regards equality between the sexes as important, could neglect to address paid maternity leave." [2] Others considered it would address "motherhood discrimination in the workforce", current inequities in the availability of paid maternity leave and, as Coles Myer's submission stated, that it would "contribute to workplace equity".

1 . Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees' Association, Submission 173, p11. 2 . Philip Gammage, Submission 91, p2.