Executive women call for tax deductible nannies, as report shows ‘unconscious bias’ holds back women in workplace

Lobby group Chief Executive Women is calling for the use of nannies to be tax deductible to boost female participation in the workforce, particularly at senior levels.

The group, whose 220 members include AIG chief Heather Ridout, Janet Holmes a Court, Jillian Broadbent and Elizabeth Broderick, says the Government’s financial support for childcare arrangements should extend to parents who use nannies.

At the moment there is a 50% rebate for childcare that is capped at $7500 per year.

CEW argues that childcare is not always appropriate for women working at senior levels because of long working hours and the need for flexibility.

Member Belinda Hutchinson says the group is calling for a doubling of the childcare rebate to $15,000, an increase in the childcare rebate cap to at least $150,000, and tax-deductible nannies.

“We’re saying the childcare rebate only for government-approved childcare cenres doesn’t work,” Hutchinson says, saying the average annual cost for childcare in Sydney or Melbourne is $25,000 per child.

For women with two or more children, childcare costs often prompt women to question the value of returning to work, Hutchinson says.  

Another CEW member Jenny Fagg said next week’s tax summit was the perfect chance to discuss the idea.

“The Government’s own research shows that women not participating fully in the workforce is costing the Australian economy $93 billion each year and contributing to the potential financial burden of the ageing population,” Fagg says.

“Lack of affordable, reliable childcare is cited in national and industry-based surveys across women of all professional levels as one of the biggest obstacles to women returning to work after having children.”

Earlier this month an Ernst & Young report into women in leadership found that while female participation on ASX 200 boards increased from 8.6% in fiscal 2010 to an historic high of 12.7% in fiscal 2011 it was “unclear whether this actually represents an increase in the pool of female non-executive directors or simply an increase in the number of board positions held by existing female directors”.

“In order to remain globally competitive corporate Australia needs to focus on finding a solution to address this issue,” the report says.

“Around the world we are seeing a growing body of evidence that unconscious bias – not the lack of female ambition or women being unwilling to ‘play the game’ – is the main barrier to women attaining senior leadership levels.

“Until this is acknowledged organisations will continue to put in place programs and initiatives to ‘fix the women’ rather than review the underlying systemic issue leading to inquiry – namely unconscious bias.”

The push comes amid complaints from the childcare industry that it can ill afford the government push to increase salaries for its workers.

ABC Learning, the country’s largest childcare provider which was bought by a not-for-profit group after its spectacular collapse during the global financial crisis, also called for more taxpayer subsidies to compensate for higher wage costs, according to The Australian newspaper.

Government changes to early childhood education and care include increasing qualification requirements for childcare workers, enforcing lower child-to-carer ratios and ensuring that all children can attend pre-school.

The Productivity Commission in June said parents could reduce the amount of time they put children in childcare as costs from reforms feed through the industry.

From next year centres will be required to have one employee per four babies, from 2016 they will be required to have one employee for every five children between 25-35 months and one worker for every 11 older children.

“…staffing costs for early childhood education and care services will increase and this increase will need to be paid for by the service through lower surpluses or profits, by staff accepting less than market wages, by parents in the form of higher fees or by governments or a combination of these,” the Commission’s report says.