Women are being encouraged to stop work at 3.14pm on International Women’s Day to highlight the time at which women stop being paid for a full day’s work in comparison to men.
The campaign from Australia’s first female-focused superannuation fund, Verve Super, wants employers to support women to participate in the walkout that highlights the gender pay gap.
The time, 3:14 pm, represents 78 per cent of the way through the standard 9am to 5pm work day at which women stop being paid for their full day’s work, based on Australia’s total remuneration gender pay gap of 21. 7 per cent.
“Verve’s purpose is to close the gender superannuation gap, which is directly impacted by the gender pay gap,” Christina Hobbs, Founder of Verve Super, said.
“We are supporting our team to walk out of work at 3:14 pm in recognition of the severity of the pay gap and we hope to see other businesses do the same.”
Verve Super is also launching a pay gap pledge in response to the recent release of gender gap data across 5000 Australian companies.
The #PayGapPledge asks companies to improve their gender pay gap by taking tangible action, such as uplifting their parental leave policies or reviewing their hiring practices.
Some of the country’s most recognisable employers were shown to have gender pay gaps of 30-40 per cent in favour of men.
The toolkit includes helpful guides for workplaces including how to understand your data, set targets, share information transparently, improve hiring practices, uplift parental leave policies and improve other HR policies.
The toolkit includes an email template that employees can use to reach out to their managers to share the resources in the toolkit.
“Beyond the symbolism of the IWD Walkout, we have designed a toolkit to help employees at other businesses reach out to their leadership and demand real change. As business leaders, we need to be doing more to close the gap. The more of us that take action, the stronger the pressure is on other businesses to drive change,” Hobbs said.
“The #PayGapPledge is all about individuals and businesses campaigning for the change we want to see, beyond just the empty promises companies have been making for years. We encourage businesses to get on board, especially in light of the stark data from WGEA, and make change today for an equitable future.”