Author: Paul Karp

Questions about sexual orientation and gender identity dumped from census

Paul Karp

By: Paul Karp. 

Australian Bureau of Statistics also won’t ask about respondents’ journey to education and whether they smoke

The Australian Bureau of Statistics has ditched preparations to ask about sexual orientation and gender identity in the 2021 census, although a question whether people are male, female or non-binary is still under consideration.

On 15 October, the ABS will test the census on 40,000 households in Wagga Wagga and south of Brisbane, including proposed new questions on non-binary sex, long-term health conditions and Australian defence force service.

The test follows a consultation process in 2018 that identified eight potential new topics. The ABS has decided not to proceed with questions on gender identity, sexual orientation, respondents’ journey to education and smoking.

The Equality Australia chief executive, Anna Brown, told Guardian Australia: “It is disappointing that the ABS will not be collecting information about sexual orientation in the next census.

“It is absolutely vital for us to be counted if we are to have the diverse needs of the LGBTIQ community adequately addressed in government policy and programs.”

The LGBTI Health Network had lobbied for inclusion of sexual orientation, gender identity and intersex status to help address the significant health disparities experienced by LGBTI people.

“We all know about the mental health and well-being disparities for LGBTIQ Australians,” Brown said. “We need a clearer understanding of the demographics of our communities so we can ensure that funding whether for healthcare, or social services, is directed to where it is most needed.”

An ABS spokesman attributed the decision to a desire to keep “the burden we placed on responding households to a minimum, and being able to test our processes”.

In a further statement a spokesman said that the final decision on questions for the 2021 census is one for government, which has not yet advised the ABS of its decision.

“Potential new topics, not included in the October test, may still be included in the 2021 census pending the government’s decision,” he said.

Stephen Jones, Labor’s shadow assistant treasurer, said LGBTI Australians “have been ignored in Australian health policy planning for too long”.

“A raft of major national health organisations support collecting data on sexuality and gender identity in the 2021 census,” he said.

Jones said he had written to the assistant treasurer, Michael Sukkar, asking him to work with parliament and the LGBTI community to improve the inclusivity of the census, health services and “to make sure all Australians get counted in the 2021 census”.

Since becoming prime minister in August 2018, Scott Morrison has been criticised from LGBTI equality advocates for politicising sexuality and gender identity.

Morrison has opposed sex-ed programs he agreed made his “skin curl” by teaching the fact of diversity in human sexuality, described teachers who support trans students as “gender whisperers” and demanded his department remove signage that gives people the choice of bathroom based on their gender identity.

In the 2016 census, the ABS gave census respondents the option to identify as neither male nor female but “other” in both the sex and gender categories.

However, both the paper and online versions of the census displayed only male and female options, meaning people wishing to identify as “other” in either category were required to contact the census inquiry service to receive either a special login to do so online or instructions for how to fill in the paper form.

The ABS defined respondents of the “other” sex category as “persons who have mixed or non-binary biological characteristics (if known), or a non-binary sex assigned at birth”. It said the third category of sex was variously described as indeterminate and intersex.

“Other” in the gender category refers to “adults and children who identify as non-binary, gender diverse, or with descriptors other than man/boy or woman/girl”.

Source of the article: https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/oct/05/questions-about-sexual-orientation-and-gender-identity-dumped-from-census

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Gender gap narrows but push towards science has lowered wages

Paul Karp

By Paul Karp 

Analysis of graduate earnings in Australia shows benefit of a university degree is diminishing

Policies to boost female participation have helped narrow the gender gap in career earnings but pushing students to study science has resulted in smaller pay packets.

Those are the results of a Grattan Institute analysis of graduate earnings and employment outcomes, released on Monday, which found the benefit of having a university degree is actually shrinking.

Female university graduates still earn about $14,000 a year more than women whose highest qualification is year 12, while for men the premium is about $12,500. But the report found that the average earnings premium of an early career graduate aged 25 to 34 had shrunk by 8% for women from 2006 to 2016 and by 6% for men.

The report by Grattan Institute higher education director, Andrew Norton, and fellow Ittima Cherastidtham found that Australia’s immigration – skewed towards skilled migrants – and the uncapping of student places between 2009 and 2015 meant “many more people are chasing the jobs that graduates aspire to hold”.

“Growth in the number of professional jobs has not kept up with demand,” the report said. New professional jobs had “dropped significantly” after the global financial crisis in 2009 and at the end of the mining boom in 2013.

The chief executive of Universities Australia, Catriona Jackson, said there was still a “sizeable wage benefit” for graduates and the premium had only fallen slightly despite the significant expansion of access to higher education.

Male graduates saw their earnings fall by 3% from 2006 to 2016, owing to a decline in full-time work and professional or managerial jobs.

Female graduates saw their earnings rise 4% from 2006 to 2016, outstripped by a 10% increase in pay for women with year 12 as their highest qualification.

The increase in earnings was triggered by an increase in workforce participation by women with children, from less than 70% to more than 75%. The report credited additional paid parental leave and improved childcare subsidies since 2008.

The career earnings gap between the male and female median-earning graduate fell from 30% in 2006 to 27% in 2016. Women narrowed the gap by earning the equivalent of one and a half years’ of pay more across their careers.

“Progress is slow, but as successive cohorts of young graduates have careers that are less disrupted by motherhood, the gender earnings gap will continue to decline,” the report said.

For female graduates big increases in average annual earnings were recorded in nursing (+10%), education (8%), medicine (6%) and engineering (3%) – with pay increases in industries dominated by public sector employment leading the way.

Pay went backwards for female graduates in the humanities, science, information technology and law, all down 2%.

For male graduates, only those with education degrees saw a significant pay rise (+7%), while big declines were recorded in law and commerce (-7%), science (-6%) and information technology (-3%).

Engineering, law and medicine graduates remain the highest paid.

Both male and female science graduates face difficulties finding managerial/professional jobs. In 2016 more than 40% of science graduates were employed as labourers, in sales, administration and services or trades, which are less likely to use their qualification.

Only those with humanities qualifications have equivalently low rates of employment in managerial/professional jobs. Nursing, education and medicine all had rates of 90% or more employed in managerial/professional jobs.

The report said the rate of unemployment or under-employment four months after graduation grew from 15% before the global financial crisis in early 2008 to its highest-recorded level of 31% in 2014.

Evidence from previous economic downturns showed there “will be a long-lasting impact on the earnings prospects of early-career graduates”.

But it predicted that the “worst has passed” – because although “new graduates are still less likely to get a full-time job than a decade ago … their prospects are improving”.

Source of the article: https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/sep/16/gender-gap-narrows-but-push-towards-science-has-lowered-wages

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