Lucy Osborn comes from a family of nurses. She wouldn't do anything else.
"I'm very proud and full of pride for what I do," the emergency department nurse says.
But she wants fair recognition for it.
"What we want is to be known as highly skilled, educated, life-saving professionals not heroes, because heroes have special powers whereas we've worked hard to get to where we are for the community."
Nurses have been applauded around the world during the COVID-19 pandemic for putting themselves at risk for others.
So have teachers, aged and disabled care workers, cleaners and supermarket staff, who have been viewed as essential to the functioning of society.
However, those female-dominated roles are also underpaid and often unstable, which has provoked a conversation about the revaluation of women's work.
"The vast majority of women's work in these essential services is often in low-paid roles and more insecure roles," says economist Alison Pennington from the Centre for Future Work.
"I think it's starting a conversation nationally about how we turn that social value that we now ascribe to women's work … and how do we measure that in material ways through higher wages and more secure conditions?"
Ninety per cent of nurses in Australia are women and almost all midwives are female, yet in healthcare, men earn about 16 per cent more.
Overall in Australia, women earn 14 per cent less than men and are more likely to work part-time.
The Centre for Future Work has made a submission to the Fair Work Commission's minimum wage case that now is the time to boost the wages of low-paid workers, who are predominantly female.
Economist Alison Pennington says it's an easy way to inject cash into the post-pandemic economy while also narrowing the wage gap.
"It's one of the most simple things and most straightforward things that government and the commission can do right now to save us from that deflationary cycle," she said.
It's counter-intuitive for employers to look at increasing wages during a downturn and employer groups argue that doing so would lead to more job losses.
Alison Pennington admits even those women in feminised industries may find it strange.
"The pandemic and the thrusting of their wage base into the spotlight right now: in an economic sense, it does present a challenge for those women workers because they are the least likely to step up and say we need, we want to increase our wages at this time because it's in the interests of everyone but that is the truth of it," she said.
Primary school teacher Janet Matthews is not all that optimistic that the newfound status that has come with the pandemic will last.
"I have a feeling that it will be quite short-lived and that once we get back to normal, everyone will forget that they were praising us and just go back to business as usual," Ms Matthews said.
Nor is she particularly comfortable with the idea of asking for more money right now.
"Personally, I feel that it's a little bit greedy."
"That's probably not the right thing to say, but I just feel really lucky that I've still got a job when so many people have lost their jobs and aren't being paid and are having trouble supporting their families and paying their rent."
However, she says talk of public sector wage freezes does seem contradictory.
"It felt like a slap in the face absolutely," she says.
"To be told that you're doing an amazing job and then to be told it's not worth paying you for it."
The NSW Government agreed to a 2.28 per cent wage increase for teachers in January.
Teachers' unions are opposing a state public service wage freeze which may prevent the increase from being paid.
"That sort of made it difficult to believe that they have that much respect for what we do," Ms Matthews said.
Australian College of Nursing chief executive officer Kylie Ward is concerned that nurses may also be caught up in a push to freeze wages as governments argue for a period of post-pandemic austerity.
"We've just witnessed an incredible profession turn up and deliver, and these are the people that go home and worry about their families and themselves but never shied away from caring, and here we are worrying about 2 and a half per cent," she said.
"Where is the reality around that?
"It should never be preyed upon, the goodwill of women, and people, to keep this abusive cycle of not paying them their worth."
Ms Pennington is well aware of the position that many employers have taken and she says she understands why, but says it's the wrong approach.
"The issue is now, in the midst of a pandemic and an economic crisis that may become a depression, employers are looking to secure their bottom line," she said.
"If we cut the wage base across the entire economy including women in essential work, it actually is a very dangerous and risky move.
"We are teetering on the edge of deflation and what we need right now is to turn that social value that we have for those people who are working their butts off now to keep us safe into a wage increase.
"So it's about recognition but it's also a macroeconomic stability necessity."
Employer groups have been pushing for the Government to give the Fair Work Commission the power to delay this year's minimum wage ruling to allow for a period of recovery first.
However, the commission has no scope to do so.
"We're required to hear and hand down our decision in the annual wage review by the end of this financial year, so by June 30, so we're under those statutory constraints," president of the Fair Work Commission Justice Iain Ross told a recent webinar.
In that context, the ACTU continues to push for a 4 per cent increase, also noting in its March submission to the Commission that:
Ms Ward says the timing is right to revalue essential workers, so their newfound status translates financially and narrows the gender wage gap.
"If we don't get this right now, in 2020, where the world has just seen a difference that a profession like nursing makes, then I don't know that we're ever going to get it," she says.
"And we really need to take a strong look, consciously, at what we consider important."
Ms Osborn agrees.
"Absolutely, 2020 is the time."
https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMiY2h0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmFiYy5uZXQuYXUvbmV3cy8yMDIwLTA1LTI1L2NhbGxzLXRvLXJld2FyZC1tZWRpY2FsLWhlcm9lcy13aXRoLWluY3JlYXNlZC13YWdlcy8xMjI3ODExMtIBJ2h0dHBzOi8vYW1wLmFiYy5uZXQuYXUvYXJ0aWNsZS8xMjI3ODExMg?oc=5
2020-05-24 19:54:16Z
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