Call for Australian employers to take action on gender equality
Monday, August 29, marks the 60 extra days after the end of the financial year that Australian women must work, on average, to earn the same annual salary earned by men.
Equal Pay Day 2022 recognises that it has taken until August 29 to close the national gender pay gap, which is 14.1 per cent this year – a rise of 0.3 percentage points over the last six months.
To mark the day, the Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA) is calling on employers to take urgent action on gender equality by pursuing five steps to close the gender pay gap:
- Conduct a pay gap audit, develop an action plan and establish accountabilities,
- Set targets to promote gender equality at all levels of the organisation,
- Design leadership roles that can be part-time and promote women into leadership positions,
- Normalise flexible working arrangements, and;
- Introduce a robust gender neutral paid parental leave policy.
WGEA Director Mary Wooldridge said employers who had already embraced these practices and incorporated gender equality as a core part of their business strategy were reporting benefits to employee recruitment and retention, productivity and company profits.
“On Equal Pay Day 2022, WGEA is encouraging employers to make gender equality a priority by implementing five achievable, key steps that will speed up the rate of change,” Ms Wooldridge said.
“While the gender pay gap persists, women’s skills, capabilities and potential are not being fully realised or valued.
“Further, while women are earning less, they’re spending the same as men on the essentials we all need to survive.
“A high inflation rate of 6.1 per cent is greatly increasing the cost of living, making daily essentials like fruit and vegetables, fuel, electricity and rent more and more expensive. The gender pay gap means many women now find it even harder to make ends meet.”
WGEA works closely with employers to provide them with advice, tools and resources to improve gender equality in their workplaces.
These actions will be increasingly important for organisations with the Federal Government’s commitment that WGEA will publish employer-level gender pay gaps in the near future.
“Taking action on gender equality today is not just the right thing to do,” Ms Wooldridge said.
“It’s also a sensible business decision to make sure your organisation is prepared for gender pay gap transparency, to be able to articulate what analysis has been done and the steps being taken to close it.
“We encourage all employers to take gender equality seriously, incorporate it into their business strategy and to take action to address it. This will be good for business and good for all Australians.”
