But this week, that changed. Largely thanks to Lisa Wilkinson’s now much-publicised pay dispute with her former employer, Channel Nine.
And that’s an excellent opportunity to put some political pressure on the issue.
Wilkinson had pushed for pay closer to that of her co-host, Karl Stefanovic. Given the pair appear to be doing exactly the same role, it seemed to be a more than reasonable request (although Nine has claimed otherwise). Still, Wilkinson couldn’t get the pay she wanted.
And so she walked. Over to Nine’s rival Channel Ten, where she quickly picked up another high-profile job.
Wilkinson’s walk has been largely celebrated by women across the country. She has and should be commended for pushing her worth and standing up for equal pay.
However, very few women could comfortably make a similar move. Very few women again would be snapped up by their former competitor’s employer almost immediately.
And yet the good majority of women continue to earn significantly less than their male counterparts – an average 15.3% less for women working full-time at the moment, according to the latest ABS stats. The pay gap rises extensively in some industries, such as in financial services (at almost 30%), and sits at a massive 23.1% when you compare total full-time remuneration between men and women, according to WGEA.
So what can be done about it?
In the past few years, very few suggestions have been put forward at the federal government level.
On Wednesday, while addressing the National Press Club, Labor’s employment spokesman Brendan O’Connor said his party would consider legislation to close the gender pay gap, if election.
“Whatever we do, we need to elevate this as a matter of priority,” he said.
O’Connor added that he was working with Shadow Minister for Women Tanya Plibersek to consider “what we can do” and that would move beyond making a submission to making legal changes that could possibly give more powers to the Fair Work Commission to play a more “proactive role”.
“We are particularly concerned about the stalling of progress towards closing the gender gap in wages,” he said. “The Lisa Wilkinson story has raised the debate and that is a good thing. I think it is about time far more is done.”
He said they could look at addressing the Fair Work Act to address an issue that “should have been resolved many years ago.”
Any such move would build on current powers of the Fair Work Commission to adjust award rates of pay if it finds gender is a factor in work being undervalued. It gave its first “equal pay order” in 2012, following an application from the community services sector that was years in the making. A similar case involving childcare workers has already taken four years, demonstrating just how slow and complicated the system currently is.
O’Connor’s concession that there is a “lot of work to be done”, made while also offering a proactive move to address the problem – rather than simply saying the problem is a terrible one to have – was a refreshing shift on this national conversation.