Gender Pay Gap – how does YOUR employer rate and IWWD March
In the lead up to International Women’s Day (IWD) the Australian Government’s Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA) released the Gender Pay Gap (GPG) data for all businesses with 100 or more employees.
This is now an annual requirement of employers with 100 or more staff.
The gap is the difference between the average earnings of female employees compared to males in the same workplace. The calculation uses total remuneration, including superannuation, overtime, bonuses and other additional payments.
Sometimes people confuse the gender pay gap with equal pay for equal work, they are very different. Equal pay for equal work has been enshrined in law since the late 1960’s.
To help you understand the causes and contributors to GPG, WGEA has an excellent animated infographic on their website here [https://www.wgea.gov.au/the-gender-pay-gap]
What is the Gender Pay Gap?
The GPG for Education and Training in South Australia is 5.40%.
The GPG across Catholic Systemic schools is 4.00%.
However, the GPG in many of the non-systemic Catholic employers and other independent schools is much higher.
(If you are a subscriber to News Limited, you can read their article on South Australian schools here: https://bit.ly/43q6Nsc )
A handful of independent schools have a negative GPG – meaning the pay gap is in favour of women – which is how it probably should be, given women make up approximately 75% of the education workforce.
You can review the gender pay gap of your workplace using the ‘Employers by Primary State’ interactive data here: An exploration of employer gender pay gaps (wgea.gov.au)
How could I know where my workplace stands on addressing the GPG?
Employers who are committed to eliminating the GPG have policies and entitlements in their Enterprise Agreements that address this.
Some indicators that your employer is making an effort to address the GPG:
- Access to Gender Neutral Paid Parenting Leave (not limiting it to women only).
- Ability to share Paid Parenting Leave when both parents are employees.
- Superannuation on Paid Parenting Leave.
- Paid Parenting Leave counted as ‘service’ towards incremental salary progression.
- Policies in place to actively monitor and address the percentage of women in Executive leadership positions.
- Policies in place to actively monitor and address the percentage of women on boards.
How does your employer stack up? Take a minute or two and think about that.
What can IEU members do?
- Start the conversation in your workplace. Put it on the agenda of the Consultative Committee at your school.
- Do you have Enterprise Bargaining coming up? Have the discussion with your fellow IEU members and your IEU organiser about how a new EA could start to actively address the factors contributing to the GPG.
Marching in support of GPG on International ‘Working’ Womens Day
As shown in the introductory graphic, IEU officers and members braved the heat on Friday March 8 to represent our union at the annual IWWD March through the city
Our key message was 45% of employers have not analysed their GPG. This needs to be lower!
