Australian prime minister Julia Gillard has pledged to support an equal pay claim that will boost salaries for workers in the community sector by about $A12,000 per year.
The increase will cost the federal government $A2 billion, but a hit to the budget bottom line will be avoided by not introducing it until late next year and phasing it in over six years.
Speaking to community workers in Sydney amid cheers and applause on Thursday, Ms Gillard said: "it is time you got equal pay".
She said people who worked in women's refuges, disability support centres and homes for the mentally ill, as well as those who counsel victims of sexual assault, all deserved better pay that would bring them into line with the average wage.
"More than threequarters of you are women," she said. "Nearly two-thirds of you have an industry qualification compared to just over half in other industries.
"But your average full-time wage is just over $46,000 per year compared to around $58,000 for all working Australians.
"[There is] a gender-driven pay gap which sees, for example, a disability support worker with a tertiary qualification who supervises five staff get paid less than $38,000 a year.
"You have above-average qualifications, you get below-average pay."
Of the 150,000 workers in the sector, 120,000 are women; Fair Work Australia has already found that their work is undervalued because of gender considerations.
