1
00:00:00,040 --> 00:00:02,720
Speaker 1: K. Christine Bartlett was too many a hero if you

2
00:00:02,759 --> 00:00:05,920
Speaker 1: remember the name, very likable woman, a caregiver who argued

3
00:00:05,960 --> 00:00:08,719
Speaker 1: her work was undervalued and she deserved more. The Labour Party,

4
00:00:08,760 --> 00:00:12,040
Speaker 1: who loved fields and are not exactly unfamiliar with the unions,

5
00:00:12,119 --> 00:00:14,680
Speaker 1: leapt all laborate, and the Equal Pay Act was born.

6
00:00:15,120 --> 00:00:18,680
Speaker 1: Downside was how to compare this so called underpaid work

7
00:00:18,760 --> 00:00:21,840
Speaker 1: like nursing homes where women dominate, and a comparable profession

8
00:00:21,880 --> 00:00:25,040
Speaker 1: dominated by men. They decided at the time comparing mechanics

9
00:00:25,640 --> 00:00:28,520
Speaker 1: to rest home workers made sense, even though it didn't

10
00:00:28,680 --> 00:00:30,840
Speaker 1: and it doesn't, and that is why Brook van Velden

11
00:00:30,840 --> 00:00:32,920
Speaker 1: has announced pay equity is going to be quite rightly

12
00:00:32,920 --> 00:00:35,280
Speaker 1: tipped up and sorted out. Now, whether you can sort

13
00:00:35,280 --> 00:00:37,960
Speaker 1: it out sensibly is your next issue. Undercurrent law, the

14
00:00:38,040 --> 00:00:40,120
Speaker 1: job must be performed by at least sixty percent of

15
00:00:40,159 --> 00:00:43,080
Speaker 1: the same sex. That will rise to seventy percent. Grounds

16
00:00:43,080 --> 00:00:45,000
Speaker 1: that lead you to believe that the work is historically

17
00:00:45,040 --> 00:00:48,000
Speaker 1: and currently undervalued. You will need evidence for that. They're

18
00:00:48,040 --> 00:00:51,000
Speaker 1: looking at comparators. That's your apples and oranges or rest

19
00:00:51,040 --> 00:00:53,760
Speaker 1: home workers and mechanics. The trouble with the Bartlet issue

20
00:00:53,760 --> 00:00:56,280
Speaker 1: was twofold. One part of the argument was if you

21
00:00:56,320 --> 00:00:59,560
Speaker 1: paid people more, you would they said, recruit more easily.

22
00:00:59,600 --> 00:01:03,120
Speaker 1: Turns out that's wrong. After huge pay rises, rest home

23
00:01:03,200 --> 00:01:06,360
Speaker 1: gaps are still a disaster. And two, the bill to

24
00:01:06,440 --> 00:01:11,240
Speaker 1: reach this so called equity was two billion dollars, a

25
00:01:11,280 --> 00:01:13,640
Speaker 1: lot of money. Then a lot of money. Now I

26
00:01:13,680 --> 00:01:15,880
Speaker 1: wish Van Walden well, But the simple truth is the

27
00:01:15,880 --> 00:01:18,720
Speaker 1: moment you try to engineer something, you tend to strike trouble.

28
00:01:19,000 --> 00:01:21,759
Speaker 1: Work is worth what work is worth, no matter who

29
00:01:21,800 --> 00:01:23,920
Speaker 1: does it. Some work pays more than other work. It's

30
00:01:23,959 --> 00:01:26,480
Speaker 1: based on demand or skills, or sales or revenue or

31
00:01:26,480 --> 00:01:29,840
Speaker 1: scarcity or demand or a combination of given no one

32
00:01:29,920 --> 00:01:33,360
Speaker 1: makes anyone work in any given area. You strike extraordinary

33
00:01:33,360 --> 00:01:36,120
Speaker 1: complexity in trying to gerrymander it if it turns out

34
00:01:36,120 --> 00:01:38,760
Speaker 1: to attract women over men or men over women. It

35
00:01:38,800 --> 00:01:41,560
Speaker 1: also singles out just one element of work, money as

36
00:01:41,600 --> 00:01:43,880
Speaker 1: being the sole reason for that work, and it's not.

37
00:01:44,520 --> 00:01:47,880
Speaker 1: What we have doesn't work, hasn't sold anything, and was

38
00:01:47,920 --> 00:01:51,200
Speaker 1: done for very poor reasons. So reform is good, but

39
00:01:51,320 --> 00:01:54,840
Speaker 1: reform to what is a bigger trick than they may realize.

40
00:01:55,320 --> 00:01:58,240
Speaker 1: For more from the mic asking breakfast listen live to

41
00:01:58,360 --> 00:02:01,400
Speaker 1: news talks that'd be from six E weekdays, or follow

42
00:02:01,440 --> 00:02:03,000
Speaker 1: the podcast on iHeartRadio