Albanese Government Plans To Legislate Reforms Addressing Gender Pay Gap

Closing pay discrepancies

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The Federal Government is planning on overhauling Australia's Fair Work Act to make "pay equality" "at the heart" of all pay decisions by the end of the year.

It comes following warnings that progress towards gende pay equality had halted.

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Under the reform, it would be easier to order wage increases for low-paid female-dominant industries like early childhood education and aged care.

A report by economic consultants KPMG found the biggest pay discrepancy was in the education and training sector, with women paid an average of $6.33 an hour less than men - although women accounted for 70 per cent of total employment in that sector.

In healthcare and social asssistance jobs, women were paid an average of $4.88 an hour less than men.

Speaking to Channel Nine's Today show, Employement and Workplace Relations Minister Tony Burke said the changes would ensure the Fair Work Commission accounts men and women pay differences when formulating rules on pay rate.

It would also force more transparency, with the reform to make companies employong over 250 people to publicly report its gender pay gap.

"There are also decisions that we can make like at the moment in a lot of jobs, there could be contracts where you're not allowed to tell your other worker what's you're earning," Burke said.

"It's a really common ploy in workplaces where women are being paid less than men.

"We want to get rid of those clauses."

Burke said the current pay gap between men and women is about 14 per cent, or approximately $250 per week.

The average full-time wage for a woman - excluding overtime - in May this year was $1609.00 a week, while men earned an average of $1872.90.

He acknowledged that some businesses would argue against the reform and expected to receive backlash if passed.

"You need to remember though for every business, if you get wages moving across the country, yes, they're paying more on wages but their customers also have more to spend," he said.

"It's not some sort of zero sum game here."

Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry CEO Andrew McKellar said it “strongly supports gender pay equity”.

“Requiring companies with more than 250 employees to publicly disclose gender pay data is not unreasonable and should not be too onerous for employers,” he said.

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27 August 2022