Additional Comments from the Australian Greens

1.1Closing the gender pay gap is critical to tackling inequality. Over the past decade, the Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA) has done important work to increase awareness, provide rigorous analysis of gender pay disparity in Australian workplaces, and to identify ways to close the gap. However, over that time, the needle has not shifted significantly on gender equality and actually took a step backwards during the pandemic.

1.2The 10-year review of WGEA’s role and powers was a timely opportunity to consider what could be done to get urgent progress on closing the gender pay gap. The Australian Greens welcome the Workplace Gender Equality Amendment (Closing the Gender Pay Gap) Bill 2023 (the Bill) as a big step towards achieving this goal.

1.3The Bill will implement four recommendations from the WGEA Review, in whole or in part. These changes will help to shine a light on pay inequality and inaction on equality measures. This additional transparency will encourage employers to take meaningful action and allow employees to see where they are being short-changed, to call out their employers, or to move on if they are not being valued.

1.4The changes will also allow the collection of more data on the intersectional pay inequity experienced by First Nations women, culturally diverse women, LGBTIQ women, and women with disability, although more work needs to be done to secure robust data collection for non-binary employees and to align data collection protocols across the public sector.

1.5The Australian Greens acknowledge the government’s commitment to implement outstanding recommendations in a second tranche of reforms.We urge the government to consider the following issues as part of those reforms.

Employers required to report

1.6An analysis of gender pay gap report in six countries, undertaken by the Global Institute for Women’s Leadership and Fawcett Society[1], concluded that the issue of gender inequality is ‘too important for gender pay gap reporting regimes to only target large employers’.[2]

1.7The current threshold for reporting to WGEA is companies with 100 employees (and 500 employees for reporting against the detailed gender equality indicators). This means pay disparities and the volume of sexual harassment in many small and medium sized businesses—a sector employing a significant number of people in Australia—will remain under-reported.

1.8According to the Global Institute for Women’s Leadership, the median reporting threshold amongst countries with gender pay gap reporting is 50 (France, Belgium, Spain and South Africa), with some jurisdictions requiring companies with as few as 10 employees (Sweden) to comply with reporting obligations.[3]We urge the government to consider requiring all companies with more than 50 employees to report against the gender equality indicators, and supporting small and medium sized businesses to meet any new reporting obligations.

1.9The government must also work towards national harmonisation of gender reporting requirements for State and Territory public sector agencies. This will ensure WGEA can access a consistent national suite of data to inform its analysis.

Reporting indicators

1.10As raised by a number of submitters, relevant employers should be required to submit data on base salary rates, as well as total remuneration packages. Sectors that regularly use incentive and bonus schemes, such as law, finance and tech, are often male-dominated and failure to account for those extra payments risks further disguising gender pay gaps within those industries.

1.11Reporting on salaries without capturing overtime payments could also distort pay gap data in professions with higher proportions of part-time and shift workers, such as retail, nursing and aged care.

1.12WGEA should undertake a review of the new gender equality indicators and reporting requirements within three years to identify any key data gaps, and assess whether greater transparency on the listed indicators is driving meaningful change.

1.13The Senate Select Committee on Work and Care has recommended further trials of a four-day work week across diverse sectors and regions around Australia. While the gender equality indicators already require reporting on flexible work arrangements, WGEA could consider including an explicit indicator around whether companies are looking at implementing reduced working weeks.

Compliance monitoring and enforcement

1.14To drive a cultural shift in action on the gender pay gap, WGEA needs powers to monitor compliance and hold employers to account where they fail to report, or where their reports are incomplete or misleading.

1.15The Workplace Gender Equality Procurement Principles already seek to prevent non-compliant employers from being eligible to receive government grants, tenders or contracts. The strengthened gender equality indicators will require companies with government contracts to meet reporting obligations and to take meaningful action to address gender pay gaps.Notably, in previous years many non-compliant employers continued to receive government funding and contracts.[4] We welcome commitments from the government to ensure that the procurement principles are given effect and provide a positive incentive for employers to work towards closing their gender pay.

1.16WGEA also needs to have adequate resources to identify companies struggling to close their gender pay gap. This can include targeted training and workplace consultation, assistance to develop action plans, and supporting managers of similar organisations that have successfully closed their pay gap to mentor others.

1.17We welcomed the additional funding allocation to WGEA in the 2022–23 budget. The government must consult regularly with WGEA about whether any additional resources or powers are required to enable WGEA to achieve the aims of the Bill.

Senator Barbara Pocock

Member

Senator Larissa Waters

Participating Member

Footnotes

[1]M. Cowper-Coles et al, Bridging the gap? An analysis of gender pay gap reporting in six countries(Global Institute for Women’s Leadership and Fawcett Society), October 2021, https://www.kcl.ac.uk/giwl/research/gender-pay-gap-reporting-comparative-analysis (accessed 16 March 2023).

[2]M. Cowper-Coles et al, Bridging the gap? An analysis of gender pay gap reporting in six countries, October 2021 p. 9.

[3]For a full comparison, see Global Institute for Women’s Leadership and Fawcett Society, Gender Pay Gap Reporting: A Comparative Analysis, 2020, https://www.kcl.ac.uk/giwl/research/gender-pay-gap-reporting-comparative-analysis (accessed 16 March 2023).

[4]David Crowe, ‘Flouting discrimination rules no barrier to winning government contracts’, Sydney Morning Herald, 21 May 2021, https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/gender-reporting-federal-funds-to-companies-flouting-rules-20210321-p57cpm.html (accessed 16 March 2023).