Australian-first reforms empower Australian workers with access to employer gender pay gaps

More than four and a half million Australian employees will be able to access their employer’s gender pay gaps starting in early 2024 after the passage of the Workplace Gender Equality Amendment (Closing the Gender Pay Gap) Bill 2023 in Federal Parliament today.

The package of reforms requires the Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA) to publish employer gender pay gaps for private sector and Commonwealth public sector employers. This will be done by mean, median and employer remuneration quartile.

The Australian-first measure covers the workplaces of approximately 40 per cent of the nation’s workforce.

WGEA CEO Mary Wooldridge welcomed the passage of the Bill and acknowledged the leadership and significant work of Minister for Women Sen. The Hon. Katy Gallagher to deliver these crucial reforms.

Ms Wooldridge said the reforms shape the future of workplace gender equality and will give employees greater insights into their workplaces’ gender equality policies and priorities.

“For the first time, from 2024 employees will have access to the key indicator of how their organisation is performing on gender equality,” Ms Wooldridge said.

“Employees and prospective employees are placing high value on jobs that support gender equality.

“Publishing employer gender pay gaps will provide deeper insights on their employer’s progress, while job-seekers can get a clearer indication of a prospective employer’s commitment to ensuring the contributions of all employees are equally valued and rewarded.

“This is also an opportunity for employers who may have been slow to prioritise gender equality to get serious about change.”

Ms Wooldridge said Agency data showed that employers gain a competitive edge when they make gender equality a priority.

“Analysis of workforce data reported by employers that hold WGEA’s Employer of Choice for Gender Equality (EOCGE) citation has shown dedicated action gets results, with these employers closing their gender pay gaps faster than others,” Ms Wooldridge said.

“One of the recurring messages from our most recent recipients of the EOCGE citation was that as soon as they started on the path to gender equality, they saw the benefits and they wished they had started earlier.”

International research is showing that publishing employer pay gaps can be a powerful motivation for companies to prioritise gender equality and to lower their gender pay gaps. In the UK, the approach has already motivated employers to substantially narrow the wage gap between men and women.

“A key aim of publishing gender pay gaps is to help employers show improvement over time,” Ms Wooldridge said.

“That is why an essential part of the legislative reforms is to give employers the option to provide a statement that gives context to their gender pay gap results and outlines their plans for action.

“WGEA will continue to actively support all reporting employers to make progress on gender equality in Australian workplaces as these reforms are implemented.”

The reform package also strengthens WGEA’s world-leading dataset with mandatory reporting from 2024 of employee age, primary workplace location and CEO remuneration, as well as spurring accelerated action by requiring WGEA’s gender equality reports are shared with governing bodies.

The changes also support safer workplaces and advance implementation of the Respect@Work report with enhanced reporting on the prevalence, prevention and employer response to sexual harassment and harassment on the grounds of sex or discrimination.

From 2024, large employers with 500 or more employees must also have policies or strategies in place to address all six gender equality indicators.

Media contact

Emma Manser |  0437 225 386  |  E emma.manser@wgea.gov.au  

BPW members will have attended and hosted International Women's Day events around the country and heard inspiring speakers celebrating women's achievements but also relaying dismaying statistics about the progress of women's equality.  Now take the time to listen to listed to two leading women, Sam Mostyn and Katy Gallagher, summarising where we’re at and what’s next for Australian women.

On International Women's Day, the federal government released the Status of Women Report Card which provides a data summary of what life looks like for women in Australia in 2023. The report card looks at education, economic outcomes, health, safety and wellbeing, housing and gender norms girls and women experience in careers and working life, through parenthood and families, and in later life. Listen as Katy Gallagher, Minister for Women delivers the Susan Ryan Oration and Sam Mostyn AO provides insight into the work the Women’s Economic Equality Taskforce is doing.

Women for Election, a non-partisan, not-for-profit organisation, is supporting several candidates in the NSW election hoping to increase the representation of women in the state parliament.  WFE offers training courses for aspiring candidates to better equip them to engage with the political system.  Of the 2,500 women 3who have completed their course in the last 2 years, 17 are running in this state election across political parties and as independents. 

ABC’s even-handed analysis describes a diversity of women candidates for the NSW election across age groups and cultural backgrounds.  It profiles several candidates, including lawyer and company director Helen Conway who is standing in the seat of North Shore.  BPW members will be familiar with Helen who is a founding Director and inaugural Chair of Australian Gender Equality Council, and who was previously CEO of the Workforce Gender Equality Agency and Chair of the Board of Women for Election. 

This week the Workplace Gender Equality Agency released new data on Australia’s gender pay gap, which has dropped to a record low of 13.3% - 87c for every dollar a man earns. But this doesn’t include bonuses, overtime payments or superannuation – the total remuneration gender pay gap is consistently 5% greater than the gender pay gap for base salaries alone

In November 2022, women’s average weekly ordinary full-time earnings across all industries and occupations was $1,653.60. For men it’s $1,907.10. Women are $253.50 worse off every week as a result of their gender, amounting to $13,182 over a year. Because the gender pay gap only reflects base salary for full-time workers, it’s only a limited reflection of the true situation.

As many Australians struggle with sharp increases in the cost of groceries, energy, fuel and housing, WGEA is calling attention to the disproportionate effect this persistent pay gap has for Australian women. With inflation at 7.8%, and rising, everyday essentials are becoming increasingly unaffordable.

There’s flurry of activity around early childhood education and care. This week childcare experts attended a national summit on children under 5, last week the government established a Productivity Commission inquiry into early childhood education and care, and last month the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission began its inquiry into the cost of childcare.  And former prime minister Julia Gillard is leading a royal commission into early education and care in South Australia. 

The Productivity Commission Inquiry is expected to lay the foundations for achieving a universally accessible, high-quality early learning and care system in Australia.  The ACCC will examine how costs and prices differ across childcare service types and locations and how these impact childcare provider viability, quality and profits.  

A research team at Victoria University finds that universal, affordable and high-quality early education for Australian families is on the horizon, but four key challenges remain:

• 1.    Access to early childhood education and care is not equal in Australia, and depends on where families live.
• 2.    Despite increasing subsidies, the cost of early childhood services remains a key issue for many families.
• 3.    The government’s “activity test” is a major barrier to parents working.
• 4.    Early childhood educators are overworked and not paid enough

How can the international news media represent women’s voices better? A recent report, “From outrage to opportunity: How to include the missing perspectives of women of all colours in news leadership and coverage” by Luba Kassova discusses gender parity in news leadership and production, as well as news coverage. It was commissioned by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and is based on extensive research in South Africa, Kenya, Nigeria, India, the UK and the US.

In an article in The Conversation, Professor Ylva Rodny-Gumede of University of Johannesburg examines gender discrimination in the news media and the hurdles and threats the contemporary media sphere presents to women journalists. Research outlining gender imbalances and female leadership in the news media remains scarce and uneven. The report shows that women in the 6 countries surveyed remain severely underrepresented in editorial leadership and in news coverage. Their voices are excluded in shaping public discourse in the male-dominated industry. Ensuring better representation of women’s voices in the news media would change not only the industry, but also public discourse.

Other studies show that where women control news content, it tends to be more gender sensitive and representative. Women journalists are also more likely to challenge gender stereotypes, raise gender inequality issues, and reference legislation or policy that promote gender equality or human rights.

On the upside, the “From outrage to opportunity” report focuses on solutions. It makes a case for addressing the gender gap in news consumption. This provides a multi-billion-dollar revenue opportunity for a struggling global news industry. The report argues that, if the gender gap were to be addressed and women better represented in the news media, the industry could grow female audiences exponentially. It estimates that closing the gender consumption gap could generate as much as US$83 billion over the next 10 years.

A new CEDA report that examines the unequal distribution of male and female workers across and within job types provides a useful summary of the drivers of gendered workplaces.  CEDA analyses the impact of gender stereotyping, hiring practices, education opportunities, migration, and the ‘motherhood penalty’ on the distribution of women across occupations.  They propose formalising flexibility policies, strengthening compliance reporting and mentoring more women into we’ll paying STEM jobs.  

Angela Priestley in Women's Agenda suggests a different approach.  Efforts to increase women in male-dominated professions like construction, mining and STEM-related fields by creating more family-friendly environments, should be complemented by placing greater value on sectors that are dominated by women like nursing, aged care and early childhood education.  If boys [and men] were encouraged into the caring professions, would there be a commensurate increase in pay and conditions that benefits both women and men?  Something to debate at your next club meeting.

The UN's Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) will take place from 6 to 17 March 2023 in New York. Many BPW members around the world have been able to attend CSW and its parallel events as delegates and observers over the years.  Additionally, BPW International runs its own program for our members during CSW in New York.

BPW International has Consultative Status with a range of high-level UN bodies including with ECOSOC, the UN Economic and Social Council, and UNESCO, the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation.  CSW is a functional commission of ECOSOC, and the principal global intergovernmental body exclusively dedicated to the promotion of gender equality and women's rights. CSW is instrumental in promoting women’s rights, documenting the reality of women’s lives throughout the world, and shaping global standards on gender equality and the empowerment of women.

The Priority theme for this year is innovation and technological change, and education in the digital age for achieving gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls. CSW will also review the 2022 theme, which was challenges and opportunities in achieving gender equality and the empowerment of rural women and girls.

BPW Australia advocated strongly for pay transparency over recent years, and it is now finally legislated as a workplace right.  We will monitor whether this leads to greater pay equity in Australia.

Research assessing the impact of pay transparency policy on Canadian universities reveals that disclosure led to a 4% pay increase for female staff that was not evident in universities that kept pay secret.  However, the reasons seem to be systemic rather than personal – when salaries are open to public scrutiny, the universities are more conscious of the negative implications of attracting and retaining staff if gender inequity was evident in their employment practices.

BPW Australia has long partnered with COSBOA – Council of Small Business Organisations Australia, and two BPWA Presidents have chaired the Council’s Leadership Team.

Two of COSBOA's current projects align strongly with BPWA aims, both funded under the Australian Government’s Women’s Leadership and Development Program: 

The Academy for Enterprising Girls is a fun and exciting entrepreneurship program, available FREE to all young women in Australia aged 10 – 18, The Academy is designed to cultivate young women’s skills in design thinking, entrepreneurial and business skills.

This is complemented by the Accelerator for Enterprising Women  is designed to support and empower young women aged 18 to 24 years to create self-made Job Maker career paths, pursue entrepreneurship as a viable career choice and to ensure Australia’s next generation of businesswomen have the skills required to run their own businesses and transform the industries in which they work.