Antiseptic, interesting point about the capacity to earn.

Firstly if you were still married, nobody would give two hoots about your capacity to earn, so you could work as hard or as little as you like. But the minute you become a payer this is a different story.

As you already know one of the guiding principles, is that the children theoretically should not experience a fall in the standard of living following separation, so by default the custodial parent will also benefit.

It was Melaine Phillips who pointed out that the best interests of the child, is used to transfer wealth for those who work to earn it, to the custodial parent.

Well hi there Baygon. You are actually beginning to sound 'debatable' rather than dogmatic.

This from you:

1/ Whether Ford moved because of the equal pay position is contentious but it is a credible claim;

COMMENT
No...it wasn't that, it was the rise of more competitive manufacturing in other countries including Spain and Europe.
Plain and simple. 'competitiveness'. The straw which broke Fords back in Dagenham was the industrial turmoil.. strike after strike after strike. Simply untenable.

2/ it is a reflection of our unjust global system for it means that multinationals will be in attracted to countries with the weakest industrial & environmental laws.

COMMENT Holy Moley...'the world is unjust' ? now THAT comes as a surpise! Err..not. Humanity is inherently 'selfish' just ask any idiot worker who simply swallows the latest Union blabber about 'better pay and conditions' only to find the company shuts down within months and moves off shore.

3/However, the solution is not to tolerate injustice domestically the solution should be to boycott the products of those multinationals that employ child and slave labour, do not pay fair wages and destroy the environment - were we to do that the Chinese economic miracle would be nipped in the bud

COMMENT
Boycott ? ? ? ur kidding right? don't you recall.. 'humanity is GREEDY and SELFish'... and asking some person on limited income to pay $100 for some widget "made in Aus" that he/she can buy for $20 made in China... is rather optimistic.

Take ME for example. I needed a decent belt. Goto the local menswear outlet $50...or.. goto the Chinese $2.00 shop and pay $4.00

Sorry.. boycotts of your type simply won't work.

You should tell us your 'real' agenda "Global Socialism"...but that won't work either for the same reaons "us". Read Romans chapter 1.

Yes James, the Capacity to Earn and its latter day incarnation Capacity to Pay are designed specifically as a means of making payers pay more than their taxable income would suggest they should. They are at the heart of most of the ombudsman's critiques of the CSA and have been since at least 2001.

The most egregious aspect of the Capacity to Pay is that it removes any capacity to choose from the payer. If I decide to take a job which pays less than my current one I may be held responsible for the same level of child support, simply because I once earnt it. The fact that I may have chosen fewer hours to enable me to spend more time with my children is not recognised as a valid reason for doing so, unless the extra time involves the kids spending more nights at my place.

The double standard is breathtaking.

Cornflower: "So many women in organisations want a highly paid position solely to 'manage staff' which, judging by their lack of interest in the nature of the work they are involved in, must mean shedding their own accountabilities"

Another feminist myth is that women are better managers. Truth is they are better lower-level managers, because they are better at multitasking and juggling.

But what it takes to get to senior management is getting results - single-mindedness, not letting yourself get distracted by the little things.

In evolutionary terms this is the difference between the "gatherer" (who is always looking around for side-issues such as berries on the side of the path) and the hunter, who ignores the little things sunch as a few berries or a small injury... to make sure he and his team of hunters get the mammoth.

Predator focus, it's called.

That and the fact that women rarely work long hours after the age of 35, as they choose to have a lovely work-life balance. Meanwhile men typically INCREASE their working hours when they become dads. No work-life balance for them

partTimeParent,

I saw a documentary some years ago about some women in an African village who became so fed up at the men-folk not contributing to the community that they went off and built themselves another village - just them and the children.
Their village thrived, but the men left at the other village just sat around doing nothing (just like they used to) - their lives stagnated.
I'm sure they all got back together eventually...but I thought it was an interesting example of the women demonstrating that, as far as the practicalities of daily life were concerned, they were more than capable of organising themselves.

Loved your story Poirot :)
I have often thought of doing that myself!

All the ranting and raving by the usual 'good old boys club' contributors like Antiseptic, Partimeparent, JamesH, and AGIR about all the terrible women in the nasty feminist world out there, does not negate the fact that some women ARE still paid less than men for an equal days work, in some jobs.

We aren't talking about the number of hours or days worked or the sorts of jobs involved, we are talking about dollars paid per hour of work.
If a man and a woman work at exactly the same job- say as an aged care worker- then they should expect the same pay rate per hour- yes?

The fact that women may work less hours during childbirth years, or may not work in so-called 'dirty' or some 'physically demanding' jobs is beside the point really.

Until women all over the world are paid the same money per hour of work for the same job, then there will continue to be gender inequality in the workplace.