This paper was a keynote address at the Australian Vocational Education and Training Research Association (AVETRA) conference held in Canberra in April 2012. The author notes that industry is arguably the key stakeholder in the Australian vocational education and training (VET) sector, but is not a single actor nor a disinterested consumer of…

Overskilling is the phenomenon whereby a worker's skills are underutilised in his or her job. Overskilled workers are employed, but they are underutilised and mismatched, in that their skills and abilities are not a good match with the requirements of the job. Overskilling can lead to decreased wages and job satisfaction, which suggests that the…

Analysis of aggregated data files on staff sent by all Australian universities to DEST in 2007 and of salary schedules posted on university websites reveals a considerable variation between salaries paid to general staff at each salary level and the relative seniority of those staff. This paper outlines the differences in staffing structures and…

This paper considers the profile of research administration, based on a survey of 36 Australian universities. The findings identify a group that is typically female, older and university qualified. Males tend to be more likely than females to have a research higher degree, earn a significantly higher salary and move up the salary scale at a faster…

The principle of decent work was first espoused in the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Since 1999 the International Labour Organisation has operated according to a Decent Work Agenda and in recent times the movement towards the provision of decent work as a means of improving the quality of life has gathered momentum. Decent work is…

In this paper, youth workers's pay is compared with general wage growth and the wages of those undertaking similar work, and a case is made for pay parity to attract and keep competent workers in the youth sector. (Contains 3 notes.)

This paper uses an auto-ethnographic storytelling approach to connect an individual's experience in leadership with the literature on women in leadership as a way of further exposing and understanding gendered organisational practices. Whilst the paper details only one women's experience it was through the connection to the literature that most…

This monograph is the culmination of a three-year research program undertaken by the University of South Australia's Centre for Work+Life. It considers the barriers, support and benefit of vocational education and training (VET) for workers in the low-paid occupations (that is, those earning around $17 per hour). The research considered a wide…

Recent attempts at professionalising the youth sector have focused on "codes of ethics" and left pay and conditions issues to community sector unions. The authors suggest that the history of nursing in Victoria provides a case example of the benefits of combining professional aspirations with industrial organisation.

This working paper assesses the ease of immigrants' integration in OECD labour markets by estimating how an immigration background influences the probability of being active or employed and the expected hourly earnings, for given individual characteristics. Applying the same methodology to comparable data across twelve OECD countries, immigrants…

Using 1980/81 and 1990/91 census data from Australia, Canada, and the United States, we estimate the effects of time in the destination country on male immigrants' wages, employment, and earnings. We find that total earnings assimilation is greatest in the United States and least in Australia. Employment assimilation explains all of the earnings…

Data from the 1989 Canadian Labour Market Activity Survey and 1989-90 Australian Income Distribution Survey suggest that a lower rate of return to education and labor market experience and a lower level of wage inequality in Australia are responsible for the smaller gender wage gap in Australia than in Canada. (SK)

Compares Australian academic salaries and those throughout the rest of the English-speaking world; examines movements in prices and community wages; and compares salaries in similar occupations in the public sector. Examines the changing nature of academic salaries. (JOW)

Examination of the widening gender earnings gap in Australia indicates that women's wages continue to lag behind those of men. The main factor appears to be women's concentration in part-time work in enterprises where bargaining is less likely to occur. (JOW)

A study of female-male employment and earnings patterns in the Australian manufacturing sector (1911-36) and specifically the clothing and textile sector found that females were heavily discriminated against in areas dominated by males (such as leather goods). (JOW)