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

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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.