Women’s Ability to Work Matters

As a working mother of two, I know first-hand how important it is to have access to childcare, and at a rate that is affordable rather than penalises you for working.

Unfortunately, in Australia:

📣 Childcare is so expensive that mothers can lose up to 100 per cent of their take-home pay from working a fourth or fifth day after the additional childcare costs (based on modelling performed by The Grattan Institute).

📣 The number of paid parental leave weeks is among the lowest across Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries.

Change is coming, and it can't come soon enough. The change from 20 to 26 weeks of paid parental leave is predicted to show an increase in national GDP to $900 million a year, and an increase of $30,000 to the average mother’s lifetime earnings.

Women's ability to work matters. It gives us choice.

And we need women to be able to combine work and caring. Right now, more women than ever decide not to have children, or have fewer children. Birth rates are at a historic low of 1.6 per woman, which is an almost 20% drop since the GFC in 2008. Why does that matter? Because it sees us dropping beneath the replacement rate and means our economy won't have enough skilled talent to service it.

At EVEN, our mission is to accelerate women’s economic progress. Follow our journey of building the digital career platform for women if these issues matter as much to you as they do to us.

Picture shows me with my daughter when she was a week old. I was fortunate enough to have access to childcare, to have a supportive home environment, and to be able to afford care. It meant I could work when I chose to. And it means I now have economic and financial choices available to me. Those choices should not be a matter of luck.

Read more useful analysis here.