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Gender pay gap worries PM
The Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, has expressed concern over data showing that women have fallen further behind men in the workplace, despite claims by a graduate employment group that the figures were misrepresented.
A recent national report from the Workplace Gender Equality Agency( WGEA) said the gender pay gap for young university graduates more than doubled last year, from $ 2000 to $ 5000 per annum.
WGEA used figures from the 2012 GradStats report by Graduate Careers Australia( GCA) that it said showed the median full-time employment starting salary for male graduates was $ 55,000( up from $ 52,000 in 2011), compared with $ 50,000 for women.
However, GCA recently told the media that the figures, which were taken from its annual Australian Graduate Survey, were oversimplified by the federal government agency and that a“ much smaller gender wage gap” of 3 per cent remained.
The next day, Gillard responded by saying that any gender gap is concerning, whether it’ s for graduates or those who have been in the workforce for a longer period of time, adding that her government had already made a difference to gender pay inequality.
Dr Carla Harris, WGEA research executive manager, said:“ It is very disturbing that men’ s starting salaries have increased over the past year but those of women have not, especially given that women make up a majority of university graduates.”
WGEA said the gender gap for graduates was most pronounced in the areas of architecture and building, dentistry, optometry and law.
Harris said she was certain that any“ female school leaver contemplating a career in dentistry would be outraged knowing that she can expect to earn more than $ 14,000 less than a man in her first year on the job”.
But GCA said there was in fact no increase in the gender pay gap with the 3 per cent gap remaining unexplained. GCA said the large $ 5000 pay gap favouring males can be attributed in part to the fact that males tend to be overrepresented in higher paying fields such as engineering.
“ In addition, some of the larger wage
gaps are observed in fields with relatively low response numbers( e. g. dentistry, optometry), which could make them unreliable,” a GCA spokesperson said.
GCA said unknown variables were not collected as part of the Australian Graduate Survey, adding that it would therefore be“ unwise to assume on this evidence that there is any sex-based earnings disparity that is necessarily the result of workplace inequality”.
The spokesperson said“ GCA is concerned about the media reports as, at a time when many young Australians are making the transition from high school to higher education” statistics portrayed inaccurately could“ cloud” their decisions. ■
Artificial bone aids dental implants
The pain and high cost of dental implants for some patients could be significantly eased if Griffith researchers are successful with the use of artificial bone to assist with the procedure.
A four-year study, assisted by a National Health and Medical Research Council Grant of more than $ 66,000, is being undertaken by PhD candidate and periodontist Dr Jamil Alayan from Griffith University’ s school of dentistry and oral health.
Alayan and his team are using the latest tissue engineering technology to produce synthetic bone“ scaffolds” that can be grafted into the patient’ s jawbone. These will then provide a viable foundation within which to place titanium dental implants.
“ Traditionally, people with missing teeth who have lost a lot of jawbone due to disease or trauma, would need to have these replaced with dental implants using their own bone,” Alayan said.
“ This bone is usually derived from their jaw, but occasionally it has to be derived from their hip or skull.”
He said these procedures often cause significant pain, nerve damage and postoperative swelling, as well as extended time off work for the patient.
Alayan said the new procedure will be a less invasive method using artificial bone.
“ A big benefit for the patient is that the risks of complications will be significantly lower because bone doesn’ t need to be removed from elsewhere in the body. We also won’ t have the problem of limited supply that we
Dr Jamil Alayan have when using the patient’ s own bone.”
Currently in pre-clinical trials, Alayan said the aim is to trial the new technology on humans within the next two to three years. Regarding the anticipated cost of treatment, he said that this should be a less costly way of augmenting deficient jaw bone, with the saving expected to be passed on to the patient. ■
www. campusreview. com. au February 2013 | 11