Australian Parental Incomes : Women and Men, Couples and Singles

Families caring for dependent children need time, income and services in order to carry out the important function of raising children, an essential social and economic activity that ensures survival and wellbeing of the society. This article focuses on income, and reports on a piece of original socio-demographic research that used unpublished Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) data to explore the incomes of Australian women and men in different family circumstances. The research shows that couple family men have markedly higher incomes than couple family women, single fathers and single mothers. We need social policy that takes account of diversity of family forms; makes it possible for all families raising children to gather together adequate income; encourages gender equity; and acknowledges the raising of children as activity that benefits the whole community. Along with these requirements, social policy must recognise that caring for children takes time, and that the demands of children change over the lifecourse. The lifecourse considerations include the high demands on parental time in the early years; and recognition of change in roles and circumstances over time