Today marks a significant milestone in Australia’s fight for workplace gender equality as the median gender pay gaps that exist in companies with 100 or more employees are now public knowledge.
And with only 10 days to go until International Women’s Day, female employees are now entitled to see just how much progress their employer has made towards closing the gender pay gap– a result of amendments made to the Workplace Gender Equality Act 2012, which passed federal parliament in March 2023.
Women who work at companies with a low score– such as Apple Pty Ltd (5.5 per cent) or Tennis Australia might just breathe a sigh of relief. However, for those who look at the list of more than 5000 firms and see a gap closer to 30 and even 40 per cent, the truth could have you reconsidering where you’re working.
Airlines such as Virgin Australia (41.7 per cent), Jetstar (43.7 per cent) and Qantas (37 per cent) fall into this realm. Meanwhile, Collingwood Football Club has the highest gender pay gap out of the 18 AFL clubs at 44 per cent. And Pandora Jewellery Pty Ltd sits at a whopping gap of 52.3 per cent.
The national gender pay gap sits at 12 per cent, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, while WGEA’s total gender gap sits at 21.7 per cent. Therefore, companies with higher gaps now have A LOT of explaining to do, but it’s this very reason why pay transparency is so critical.
According to the latest survey findings from Work180– an organisation that champions diverse and equitable workplaces– women (especially those from Generation Z) have transparency at the top of their list of needs from their employers. And eighty-six per cent of respondents want to know what employers are doing to remove and/or maintain a zero gender pay gap.
“Few gender pay gaps are simply caused by a lack of equal pay for equal work, which is illegal. They stem from unequal opportunities for higher-paying positions,” CEO of Work180 Gemma Lloyd tells Women’s Agenda.
“Therefore, companies must carefully consider the policies and benefits they need to implement to rectify this disparity in opportunities. For instance, mentorship programs, flexible working policies, and parental leave policies can play crucial roles.”
Speaking to what WGEA’s public data now means for employer transparency, CEO of WGEA Mary Wooldridge says that as we view gender pay gaps from companies over time, we’ll be able to see if the commitments they articulate actually translate to real outcomes.
“This information gives employees consumers, investors and other stakeholders information about each company’s performance, which we think will help to motivate that change,” says Wooldridge.
“And of course, the public pressure by the media is a really important aspect of employers’ accountability, both highlighting who is doing well, and also who needs to improve.”
While it’s not required for companies to act on this data and close the gender gaps, advocates are hopeful that the public accountability drives positive outcomes, as other countries have already seen.
Even though companies with large gaps might be worried over this accountability, Wooldridge notes that transparency is beneficial to both employees and employers.
“Employers can choose how they respond in relation to the publishing of this information. We’re not requiring them to do anything if they don’t choose to do that,” says Wooldridge.
“I think they fail to act on gender equity at their own peril because it is an important part of the experience that their employees have day to day.”
How can women leverage the pay gap data?
With the public release of this pay gap data, advocates are hopeful that women will be able to use it to their advantage when advocating for their workplace needs.
While there’s a lot to unpack, Prue Gilbert- CEO of the gender equality platform Grace Papers– suggests that now is the time to get curious about the data and ask to what extent the gender pay gap at your company “is attributable to discretionary payments (such as overtime and bonuses) and where you fit in that band”.
Gilbert also suggests being prepared to reject any additional work that employers may place on ‘fixing’ you rather than addressing systemic issues. This work could look like self-improvement or resilience programs that don’t reach the root causes of inequality.
Other tips that Gilbert has for women is to be wise with your time, meaning “stop doing dead-end work that doesn’t grow your career”, and consider joining or starting an employee network group. Having strong relationships at work will help you to better advocate for systemic changes and progressive, gender inclusive flex policies.
And when it comes to choosing a workplace making real progress on gender equity, she says to consider the tolerance to sexual harassment (it should be ZERO), as well as how balance the teams are and how many women are in the company’s leadership.
The underlying responsibility is on employers to take action
In order to gain and retain female talent, companies will need to make firm commitments towards closing their gender pay gaps.
Dr Leonora Risse, an applied economist whose research focuses on understanding gender differentials in workforce outcomes, tells Women’s Agenda that a good way to do this is through “accountability mechanisms”.
This could include “making the target of reducing the gender pay gap a key performance indicator that executives and managers will be evaluated on,” she says.
On an individual level, Dr Risse notes that senior women in other countries with publicly available data have been able to leverage that information to secure pay rises, or to leave their employer for a higher-pay one.
Nevertheless, “junior women with less bargaining power or experience, or fewer outside job options, can’t necessarily respond in the same way,” she says, adding that “we also know, from a growing wealth of research, that women risk encountering backlash for appearing ‘too assertive’ in salary negotiations.”
“All of this means that we shouldn’t be placing all the onus on individual women to use this new pay gap data to try to secure a pay rise with their employer,” says Dr Risse.
“The responsibility for closing gender pay gaps within companies should really rest with employers and the company itself.”
And while finding out that male colleagues are making significantly more will inevitably make women feel a loss of moral or a feeling of being underappreciated, Dr Risse wants to reassure them that they “are not alone in their right to gender equitable pay, opportunities and outcomes”.
“There are many gender equality researchers, economists and policymakers in this quest with you,” she says.