Gender pay gap bill a “brilliant step forward”

The new gender pay gap bill is a “brilliant step forward” in the journey to close the gender pay gap in Australia.

Late last month, the Albanese government passed a bill that will require organisations over 100 people to disclose their gender pay gaps.

Digital Nation spoke to a handful of women who discussed how this bill will impact their respective industries. 

Vanessa Liell, partner and co-founder at corporate advisory consultancy Orizontas said this bill is a brilliant step forward and well overdue.

She said, “It’s also a step that has been incredibly hard won through advocacy of women over a long period of time.

“While companies have made significant steps forward in addressing gender equality, such as improved parental leave, flexible work and diversity and inclusion initiative – nothing beats hard data as a benchmark of progress.”

Nationally the gender pay gap is 22.8 percent and while large companies have been required to report data to the Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA) – it has never been public, Liell said.

“It’s about time there was full transparency and the ability for employees and consumers to assess if companies walk the talk and how they are making genuine progress to close the gap,” she added.

While this legislation is progress, Rochelle Fittler, advisor for PSN Advisory Services said what we do with the information that matters.

She said, “And on its own, I suspect it is not enough.”

The experience in the UK tells shows that published gender pay gap information contributes to the decisions made by women about accepting employment, but not those made by men, Fittler said.

“It’s going to take us a long time to get there if the pressure to do better only comes from the least advantaged cohort of workers,” she said.

Measure of progress

Liell explained that while the industry has been vocal in acknowledging the entrenched barriers for women in advertising and communications, transparency around pay inequality is a tangible measure of progress.

She said, “To achieve equal pay requires a workplace that has inclusive work practices, is safe and accessible to women through all stages of their career.

“This means workplaces with diverse hiring, work practices that are compatible with family life, genuine progression and a culture that addresses sexism and harassment head on.”

“There is nothing stopping the industry from proactively sharing pay gap and other indicative data right now. This type of honesty and transparency would be very welcome even ahead of the requirement,” she added.

Initial difference

Fittler said looking at the international impacts of disclosing gender pay gaps it will make some difference initially but she questions the durability of that impact.

“Some CEOs and departmental secretaries will likely have already made moves to ensure pay parity within job roles and position levels before the legislation passed in anticipation of a future reporting requirement,” she said.

“Whatever their median and mean figures are, they’ll want to be able to say that two people doing the same job are earning the same wage, especially if they’ve been spruiking their organisation’s diversity creds as an attraction.”

The risk Fittler warns is that this could seem like a red herring.

“It doesn’t address some of the real underlying issues contributing to inequity in the workplace, and at worst it can be used as an excuse not to address them in future,” she added.

Impact on public sector

Fittler addressed the gender pay gap within the public sector saying it is an issue created by many of the same factors that impact the private sector.

She said, “The overwhelming contributing factor is the imbalance between men and women when it comes to occupying senior versus junior positions. But there are inconsistencies across the public sector as well.”

Typically, individual remuneration packages only apply to senior executives, or very specialist positions, and in both cases, the ability to negotiate packages tends to disadvantage women and non-binary employees, Fittler explained.  

“The public sector is quite used to the requirement for public accountability and transparency, and there are already many mechanisms in place which could surface existing gaps,” she said.

“There is nothing, for example, preventing a senate committee asking questions about gender pay gaps during budget estimates. Annual reports will generally include information about gender representation and salary costs, but those numbers are rarely combined in a way that would allow for comparative analysis of the gender pay gap.”

The new reporting requirement for larger departments and agencies in the public sector is different, because it removes the option currently exercised by many organisations regarding how that transparency is provided, Fittler explained.  

“But I still worry that the real story will be hidden amongst the median and mean values reported, and suspect that more nuanced analysis of salary data might tell an even more troubling tale,” she added.

A long way to go

Liell said the gender pay gap reporting is a great start but they still have a long way to go.

“We also need to solve it together which means proactive and open discussion in the industry between women and men about the challenges we face and how we will tackle them,” she said.

Liell wants to see less rhetoric and more honesty about the day-to-day issues women face in the workplace which include conscious and unconscious bias, bullying, harassment and gender-specific barriers to pay and promotion.

She added, “It would be great to see the industry use days such as IWD to mark progress on the pay gap and how they’re going to close it. While celebrations are always welcome – it seems the corporate takeover of IWD masks the reality of where we’re actually at.”

Fittler said we’re closer to the end of the beginning than the beginning of the end.

“There’s still a long way to go to even convince some people that a gender pay gap is a problem. And once they’ve decided it is, we’re still caught up on the idea that someone has to lose in order for someone else to win,” she said.

“That’s a cultural fear that Australians really need to overcome.”

Fittler added, “I prefer James Carse’s infinite game mindset – the sustainability of the game is the goal, rather than a finite approach which ensures winners and losers. Pay equity ensures a sustainable foundation, and that is how we all win. But that is a long road to travel.”