What is Australia doing about the Gender Pay Gap?

Picture Source: https://mediadiversified.org/2015/07/20/the-gender-pay-gap-does-exist-and-childcare-is-key-to-tackling-it/.

The Australian Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA) estimates that the Australian gender pay gap was roughly 17.3% in 2015 [1]. To put this into perspective, the gap has the effect that the average Australian female earns $277.70 less per week than the average Australian male.

Huge difference can be seen at both a state level, and by different employment sectors, with the financial and insurance sectors offering the worst comparable rates of pay for females.

* Data accurate as of November 2015, taken from research by the WGEA Gender Pay Gap fact sheet

Legislation

Some steps have been made by Parliament to address this issue. For example, the Workplace Gender Equality Act 2012 (WGEA Act) replaced the Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Act 1999. Its aim is to improve and promote equality for both women and men in the workplace, which will enhance the productivity and competitiveness of Australian business through the advancement of gender equality in employment and in the workplace.

The Act requires non-public sector employers with 100 or more staff members to submit a report to the WGEA between 1 April and 31 May each year for the preceding 12 month period. At a high level, the report should include a breakdown of the gender composition of the workforce, conditions surrounding flexible working arrangements for employees with family or caring responsibilities and details of the differences in remuneration between men and women.[2]

The WGEA must submit a report to the Minister on the progress achieved every two years, with the first report due after the period ending 31 May 2016.

Further steps that have been taken include the introduction of the Fair Work Amendment (Gender Pay Gap) Bill 2015, which is currently before Senate. The Bill amends the Fair Work Act 2009 to remove restrictions on employees’ rights to disclose the amount of, or information about, their pay or earnings; and prohibit employers from taking adverse action against employees for disclosing this information.

Restrictions on an employee’s right to disclose their earnings can help hide discrimination, unconscious bias and bad decision-making. The harsh reality is that when pay is set in secret by one-on-one negotiation, women are often at a disadvantage. The Bill aims to directly address this issue by introducing more pay transparency, meaning employers have to justify pay decisions.[3]

With the first report yet to be released by the WGEA and restrictions on pay disclosure still in force, only time will tell as to whether the measures made by the Australian government will make a real difference in achieving true equality in the workplace.

References

[1] Australia Workplace Gender Equality Agency, at http://gldr.co/1QExuBd (Accessed April 2016)

[2] For more detailed information, see Workplace Gender Equality (Matters in relation to Gender Equality Indicators) Instrument 2013 (No. 1).

[3] Explanatory memorandum to the Fair Work Amendments (Gender Pay Gap) Bill 2015.