WGEA’s release of employer-based gender pay gaps last week set the perfect context for today’s International Women’s Day theme - “Count her in: Invest in Women, Accelerate Progress.”
Ultimately, what the gender pay gap does is count women in. The methodology behind the gender pay gap provides an internationally recognised, numerical reference for gender equality. It drives transparency and opens up valuable conversations.
The gender pay gap counts in all those women overlooked for the promotions (and pay rises) they are more than capable of. It makes it real, tangible data and, better yet, now it’s public for the whole of Australia to see.
So, if we’re counting women in, what’s the problem?
Last week’s public release of data was a milestone moment for women. Yet, amid all of the commentary, it was clear that there is still a lack of understanding of what the gender pay gap is. Expert commentators and spokespeople and the general public still confuse equal pay with the gender pay gap.
Equal pay has been in law for decades - there are no brownie points for paying women the same salary as a man doing the same job at the same aptitude level. Not paying men and women the same pay for the same role is illegal and it has been for fifty-five years. That is not what the equal pay gap is.
What is the gender pay gap?
The gender pay gap instead looks at the overall earnings of men in an organisation, compared to women’s overall earnings. The difference between the two is the gender pay gap and it is driven by the fact that women are often stuck in low and mid-ranking roles and pay scales. It is also driven by the fact that traditional female pipelines (such as People and Culture, Customer Service or Communications) are usually paid at lower scales than the traditionally male pipelines (such as Finance or Tech). What we’re trying to say is: If you have women at the bottom of the ladder and men at the top of the ladder, you need to ask yourself ‘why?’. Your pay gap is likely to be significant and it won’t fix itself until your organisation prioritises more women break through into senior roles at your organisation.
Employers with very high gender pay gaps will now need to work on overdrive to retain the talented women on their staff. Attracting more talented women will now be more challenging for those with large gender pay gaps. After all, why would any woman want to work at an organisation where she isn’t sure she has a future? And, as we explained in our blog last week, the 2025 gender pay gap reporting will present its own challenges with CEO remuneration to be included for the first time.
It’s time for solutions.
Last week, we saw many excuses for gender pay gaps, but on International Women’s Day, it is time to turn our minds to solutions. The solutions will require employers to invest in women, but that investment will accelerate progress. Training up female cadets is one important long-term step. Shorter-term steps require employers to actively promote women at higher levels of the organisation.
Now that the dust has settled on gender pay gap reporting, it is time to heed the message of International Women’s Day 2024 - count her in, invest in women and accelerate progress.
And if your organisation is serious about taking real, actionable steps to closing its gender pay gap, Equal Workplaces is here to help. Find out more about Equal Workplaces and our services here.