The Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA) is to receive $8 million to upgrade its system for monitoring gender equality in Australian workplaces by making reporting easier.
Minister for Women, Kelly O’Dwyer said the upgrade would enable the WGEA to sort and analyse the data collected better, allow for the submission of voluntary additional data, streamline the reporting process, and reduce the time and cost to business of reporting to the WGEA.
“While women in the Australian workforce have come a long way, on average they still earn less than men,” Ms O’Dwyer said.
“It is important to continue to improve the data available so we can identify and address sources of gender inequality in the workplace.”
She said the new technology would strengthen the work WGEA did with employers to promote and further improve gender equality in workplaces, “which will in turn help to grow the Australian economy.”
She said the upgraded system would enable public sector employers to voluntarily report on their pay gaps for the first time, potentially increasing the size of the WGEA’s dataset to approximately 75 per cent of Australian employees, from the current 40 per cent.
“Women are now employed full-time in record numbers and the gender pay gap has reduced to a record low of 14.5 per cent,” Ms O’Dwyer said.
“More than one million jobs have been created since 2013, the majority of which have been taken up by women.”
She accepted however, that women were still less likely to be in the workforce than men, and worked part-time at more than twice the rate of men.
She said WGEA data showed that even when a woman worked full-time she earned $26,000 less per year on average than a man.
“There is more to do in order to improve women’s economic security,” the Minister said.
