When three quarters of employers do not yet appear to be completely sold on gender pay equity checks, it helps to look at why the remaining quarter are convinced.
According to the Workplace Gender Equality Agency, it often comes down to the CEO, and whether or not he (and it’s usually a he) has had the gender equality epiphany moment that comes from having a daughter.
So today WGEA is sending bottles of “Daughter Water” to those CEOs who do not yet appear to have had such epiphanies in the hope that it will help produce the necessary offspring required for such moments. The move follows research that gender pay gaps in organisations shrink when their CEOs have daughters. So, using a combination of “old wives tales” and a quality assurance policy that sees “every bottle rigorously gender checked using the ring swing test” the water has been developed to especially help harvest girls.
Now, the good people at WGEA have kindly informed us there isn’t actually anything ‘in’ the water — instead it’s part of a “light-hearted campaign” to promote pay equity across the country.
According to data from the Agency, three in four employer are still yet to undertake a gender pay gap analysis to see if their male and female employees are being paid fairly. It says it has all the tools organisations need to undertake a simple audit and aim to address any discrepancies. So those CEOs who’ve not yet done an analysis don’t actually have to go to lengths of having to try and conceive baby girls, they can just check out the WGEA website.
WGEA has 32 Pay Equity Ambassadors involved to help — including the CEOs of AGL Energy, Clayton Utz, Maddocks, ANZ, NAB, Telstra and KPMG — and hope to have 100 this time next year. It has also launched a clever new employer search function in line with the campaign, where you can find out if your employer is “committed to equal pay” and has taken action.
So while a bottle of water probably can’t actually produce a baby girl, it could help promote gender equality.