Will you be short-changed for another year? - Women's Agenda

Will you be short-changed for another year?

This year Equal Pay day is tomorrow, September 8th. In 2015 it was September 4th, which means women have worked an additional 4 days in 2016 at no pay in the last financial year. If you are not familiar with the concept it is time to hone up on the gender pay gap metrics, which have been somewhat stagnant for 20 years

As BPW explains:

“Equal Pay Day marks the period of extra days in the current year which women need to work to achieve the same wages that men earned during the previous financial year. Equal Pay Day recognises how much longer women have to work to earn the same as men in one year. So, for every 12 months that men work, for example, women may have to work an extra 60 days – and the end of those extra days is marked by Equal Pay Day.”

There are wonderful companies in Australia who have decided to seriously address the gender pay gap issues, which takes true courage. Firstly, the courage to do the proper process to determine if there is a pay gap in the organisation. Here is the WGEA list of Pay Equity Ambassadors that have done this. Is your organisation on this list? I don’t know one organisation that has not experienced an unpleasant surprise when they saw their metrics. CBA and Telstra provide excellent case studies on what they found, while GHD has also shared what it did to help, especially around flexible work.

The second aspect of courage required to address the pay gap is around openly discussing at the senior management level that this gap exists, and that there needs to be a short term plan to remove it.

Thirdly, it’s how this gap will be communicated to employees.

Fourthly, how it will be seen by employees.

And last but not least, how the organisation will cope with the male backlash as measures are taken to address the pay gap.

It is time that fairness to women’s pay took priority over long-term bias.

It is not an easy challenge. But let’s hope Equal Pay Day can move from September to at least August and preferably July 1 in 2017!

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