Australian Women Have to Wait 75 Years for Equal Pay

It may be a comfort—or an outrage—for American women to know that they aren't the only country with an equal pay problem. Oxfam Australia recently published a report, The G20 and Gender Equality, that detailed all the juicy bits about the nation down under's gender gap today, and how long it will take the country to fix it: 75 years to be exact. So women in Australia will be equally paid by 2089.

The long delay for equal pay isn't the only disappointing information the report reveals. In Australia, and other G20 countries including Italy, the United Kingdom, Germany, and Argentina, women make up the bulk of part-time workers—from a third to a half of all employed women. And that doesn't just affect women's quality of life, but later on, as well: the report states that the average men and women's retirement savings are vastly unequal.

And, Australian women's work doesn't end when they leave the workplace: they do an average of two to five more hours of unpaid work per day than men do.

It's bad enough that in this day and age, women are still earning 77 cents to every man's dollar (in the United States, at least). Now you're telling us that equal pay won't be a reality for another 75 years? That kind of delay we can't stand for. Let's just hope the United States doesn't take as long as Australia thinks it will in confiming equal pay.