Still not equal: A study of differences in male and female TAFE graduates' earnings in Australia

The study sought to address a number of issues concerned with the employment outcomes from vocational education, using data collected in the 1997 Graduate Destination Survey (GDS). A series of focus groups and interviews with women Technical and Further Education (TAFE) graduates working in non-traditional occupations were also undertaken to explore some of the issues arising from the data analysis. The primary focus of the research was on male and female TAFE graduates working full-time at the time they were surveyed.

The main research questions addressed were:

• Why is there a gap in full-time earnings between male and female graduates, especially in some industries?
• Why does gaining a TAFE qualification appear not to provide a relative income benefit for female graduates in some industries vis à vis all females in that industry?
• Is occupational gender segmentation the reason for differences in male and female graduates' earnings?
• Are decisions on courses of study made on the basis of well-informed advice on likely income levels upon completion?
• Is the vocational education and training (VET) system reinforcing occupational gender segmentation by actively encouraging females and males into different streams of study?

The study in part focuses on six major industry divisions of employment for TAFE graduates: manufacturing; retailing; accommodation, cafés and restaurants; finance and insurance; health and community services; and personal and other services. A separate analysis on an occupational basis was undertaken in respect of all graduates employed full-time responding to the survey.

Across all the six industries examined in detail, female TAFE graduates working full-time earned about 84% of male graduates' earnings. (For all female graduates surveyed across all 17 industry divisions the figure was about 85%.) Reflecting the behaviour of the whole labour force males working full-time worked longer hours than full-time employed female graduates. This difference, however, explained at most only part of the income inequity.

As well as achieving lower incomes, other employment outcomes for female TAFE graduates are also poorer than for males. Female graduates experience higher unemployment rates and a smaller proportion attain full-time employment. Female graduates are more likely not to be in the labour force, are more likely to be working part-time and take longer than males to find a job.

The income disparity could not be explained by differences in qualifications gained by the graduates. While the female graduates in the six industries examined in detail had a different profile of qualifications to their male counterparts, the main differences were that females were more likely to hold higher level qualifications, such as diplomas and associate diplomas, while males were much more likely to hold a trade certificate. The earnings of males with trade certificates did not, however, explain the income difference as male tradespersons working full-time earned $474 per week, well below the average weekly earnings of all male graduates in the survey ($587) and below the average for all full-time employed females of $500.

While differences in level of qualification could not account for the income disparities between full-time employed male and female graduates, the analysis did reveal substantial differences in the fields of study undertaken by males and females. Females predominated in the business/administration, services/hospitality and health/community services fields, while males were the overwhelming majority of students in engineering and in architecture/building. This segregation by field of study appears to anticipate the occupational segregation that occurs in the workplace.

When a more detailed analysis was undertaken of field of study by gender, cross-tabulating this data by level of qualification, the degree of gender segregation by course becomes more apparent. In one table (appendix 5, on disk) that aggregates the six focus industries by field of study by level of qualification by gender, in more than half of the cells with values, females comprise either less than 30% or more than 70%. For those graduates working in health and community services, and finance and insurance, this measure of course segregation is much higher, with 79% and 71% respectively of females in cells that lay outside the 30-70% range.

Even when women with similar levels of qualification as males are employed full-time, they are much less likely to be employed in professional, associate professional or managerial positions. For example, in the finance industry over two-thirds of males with associate diplomas are employed in associate professional, professional or managerial positions; however, only just over one-third of females with this qualification were working at this level. Similar patterns exist in the other industries examined.

Generally, women appear to be less engaged with the labour market during their TAFE studies. They are more likely than males to be studying to get a job, whereas males are more likely to be studying for reasons related to their current job. The predominance of males in apprenticeships appeared to be the main factor behind this difference. Males are more likely to have employer support for their studies, while females are more likely to be receiving support from government, family or spouse.

In many respects the VET system seemed to work more smoothly for males than females. Females were more likely to have difficulty organising access to courses, had difficulties with child care, and often had to travel some distance to reach the college offering their course.

One important and perhaps encouraging finding is that earnings of women TAFE graduates aged under 30 working full-time are closer to their male counterparts, around 90%, than for older female graduates, whose earnings fall as low as 75% of similarly aged males.

The study also reveals sizeable differences in income disparities between the six focus industries. In most cases the disparities between male and female TAFE graduates are less than between all males and females working full-time in each of the six industries.

Many participants in the focus groups seemed to have made course and career choices on the basis of inadequate information. Nevertheless, many women made decisions not to enter traditionally male-dominated courses because they were wary of encountering harassment from fellow students, from teachers and prospective employers. Women who had successfully entered male-dominated occupations seemed to have done so if they had had previous experience in the labour force.