Now, the Turnbull Government is set to propose yet another new budget measure to further dent the financial futures of young women.
The latest measure in on higher education, with new changes set to increase fees by 7.5% and see graduates having to start repaying their debts once they start earning $42,000, down from the current $55,874 threshold. According to the Sydney Morning Herald today, that will see an additional 200,000 extra graduates facing repayments.
Granted, this higher education package is not as bad as Tony Abbott’s disastrous proposal to make a 20% cut to higher education, but this one will still seriously hurt – if it sees the light of day. Abbott’s attempt was initially rejected in the Senate in December 2014 and a second time in March 2015.
If passed, this current package is expected to kickstart a series of university fee increases from next year, increasing to 7.5% by 2022. That could see students paying an addition $3600 for a four year degree, with those hitting the $42,000 mark paying back 1% of their income, rising to 7% for those earning more than $84,000.
One per cent of your salary may not sound like much. But it needs to be put in the context of everything else that young women are being asked to do, or asked not to earn, in their attempts to start a career.
I believe young women today have it tougher than the generations ahead of them. Employers are asking for more experience than ever before – leading to a culture of unpaid internships that are increasingly becoming the norm across more industries. In order to complete such internships, young people are working odd hours in casual jobs and on the weekends, with the benefit of penalty rates – rates they can soon expect to see cut.
Meanwhile, buying a house in a metropolitan market (or really any market in Australia) is getting more difficult and expensive by the minute. While the market might just be starting to cool off, it’s almost impossible to get a start in – even for those who’ve been in paid work for decades — unless you’re gifted a large bundle of cash that can help with securing a deposit. Deputy PM Barnaby Joyce will tell young people to go and buy at house in his seat of Tamworth, instead of expecting the Sydney Harbour dream, or even the 50 kilometres from Sydney Harbour dream. I dare say young people may consider Tamworth, if Joyce can also guarantee them some kind of full-time job – and a little help in finding enough savings to get down a deposit in the first place.
While all of this affects young men as well as young women, there’s an extra sting in the tale for young women who are up against a gender pay gap that will follow them through their entire working lives, well into retirement when they can expect to retire with an an average 45% less in superannuation than their male peers. According to a 2014 study by Graduate Careers Australia, male graduates can expect to earn 9.4% more than female graduates in general, a gap that lowers to 4.4% when controls were removed, such as the fact men are enrolling in courses with higher earnings potential, like engineering.
The pay gap increases over time for young women, who’ll also find themselves hit by further pay penalties should they go on to have children, a penalty that continues even after they return to work after a career break.
That’s if young women can find a full-time job in the first place. Last year the National Institute of Labour Studies at Flinders University found that the proportion of new university graduates working full-time dropped between 2009 and 2014, from 56.4% to 41.7%.
Maani Truu, the editor of Sydney University student newspaper Honi Soit, writes today that it’s hard not to “feel we’re being duped” on this education package.
She notes the high cost of living facing those who’re studying, costs that Centrelink support doesn’t come close to covering, and support again that’s immediately cut off once you finish your degree, along with your student transport card.
When it comes to buying a house – the great Australian dream for many generations before her — Truu says screw it. “I just want a stable place to live, food on my plate and a secure job. I want my so-called world-class degree to help me achieve this, not make it harder.”
Education Minister Simon Birmingham described these higher education changes as “fair, reasonable and necessary”, but they’re yet another attack on young people, and young women are going to be hit the hardest.