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Mind the gap: 9 out of 10 women call for gender wage gap reporting
by Jaya Myler

I’ve been watching with great interest as debate has raged over the past few weeks about the ever-present gender wage gap. Survey results released today by The Heat Group, marketer to Australian women, show there’s been a huge groundswell of support for the demand issued by the ACTU for greater transparency by employers of gender pay data.

Nine out of 10 Australian women support the ACTU’s call for mandatory gender pay reporting, according to a recent survey.

The survey, conducted by The Heat Group of over 1000 women, revealed Australian women feel they’re being paid less than men for equivalent work, they have fewer opportunities than men, and they’re demanding answers on wage discrimination.

77 per cent of respondents feel men have more opportunities than women in Australia, with only 22 per cent saying they felt we had reached gender equality, and 46 per cent believe their employer would pay a man more for their job.

Data released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics for May 2008 shows women currently earn on average almost 16% less than men—around $186 per week.

The ACTU last month issued a call for mandatory annual reporting of gender pay data by all employers, prompted by the latest earnings reports. “Almost 40 years have passed since it became unlawful to pay women less than their male counterparts for work of equal value and yet the gender pay gap remains a yawning gulf in many Australian workplaces,” says ACTU President Sharan Burrow. The ACTU is appealing to employers to make salary information more transparent to allow for scrutiny, and help to close the gender wage gap.

Gillian Franklin, Managing Director of the Heat Group said when it comes to setting salary at the Heat Group, gender and age don’t come into the mix. “We offer salary based on experience, expertise and the role being filled—gender plays no role in determining our salary packages.” 

Anna McPhee, Director of the Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Agency, said it’s not just money that’s the issue.  “Pay equity is not just about equal pay for equal work.  The 15.6% gender wage gap reveals the systemic discrimination in the under-valuation of women’s work”, she said.

While we’ve come a long way towards reaching gender equality since women won the right to equal pay for equal work in 1972, there’s still a fair way to go. 76 per cent of Heat Group survey respondents said there was still room for improvement, and only five per cent said they felt the gender wage gap was no longer an issue.