Women are getting pay rises that are less than half of what male workers are receiving, a report released today shows.
Full-time male workers reported pay rises of 6 per cent in the year to August, compared to a 2.7 per cent rise for women in that time, the Melbourne-Institute wages report said. Women's expectations for pay over the next year also trailed that of men, the report showed.
The report said slowing pay growth for women over the past year suggested a weakening of the retail sector, as the labour market shows signs of flagging.
“Pay rises reported by males were more than double the rises reported by females,’’ said Melbourne Institute research fellow Dr Edda Claus.
‘‘This likely reflects in part the ongoing weakness in the retail sales sector, a large employer of females.”
The Melbourne Institute report showed a slowing conditions in areas key to the retail sector with clerks and salespeople reporting the weakest growth of the four types of workers measured by the survey.
Clerks and salespeople said their wages rose only 2.3 per cent in the year to August.
Australia’s retail sector has been hard-hit by slowing consumer spending in 2011, amid high household debt levels and concern about the outlook for the economy. The growth in popularity of online shopping, supercharged by a strong Aussie dollar in the past year, has also been blamed for the failure of booksellers Borders and Angus & Robertson, and the poor sales of retailers Harvey Norman, Myer and David Jones.
Managers saw a rise of 3.5 per cent in wages in the year to August, while plant and machine operators saw a 6.6 per cent wage rise. Para-professionals and tradespeople reported a 8.1 per cent gain in the year, the report said.
Male wage expectations for the next year were double that of females, at 4.1 per cent expected, compared to 1.9 per cent anticipated by women.
Total pay growth rose 2.9 per cent in the year to August, down from a 5.1 per cent rise in the year to May, according to the Melbourne-Institute. For hourly wage workers, the increase was only 1.7 per cent.
“The sharp slow down in pay growth and even lower outcomes for basic hourly wages point to a weakening in the Australian labour market,’’ said Dr Claus.
The softer pay growth comes against a backdrop of broadly weaker jobs data. Last week, the jobless rate posted a surprise rise for July, hitting 5.1 per cent from 4.9 per cent in June.
Slowing pay growth, comes as expectations for the job market moderated amid uncertainty for the local and global economies - a point underscored by last weeks market plunges.
Last week's ANZ job advertisement index, a forward gauge of worker demand, fell 2.2 per cent in July in trend terms - the fourth consecutive month of declines in trend terms.
"Historically, declining trends for job advertising have been consistent with rising unemployment... though the trend to date is quite modest," said Ivan Colhoun, ANZ Head of Australian Economics and Property Research said last week.
The survey was based on the results of 1200 respondents, polled nationwide from August 1 to 6.
czappone@fairfax.com.au
