A review into Australia’s workplace gender equality laws has confirmed the persistence of gender inequality and the need to do more to address it.
In its WGEA Review Report, the Office for Women said the persistence of gender inequality in workplaces underlined the significance of its review of the Workplace Gender Equality Act 2012.
The Office said the Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA) was established under the Act to help improve gender equality outcomes in workplaces.
“There has been progress on gender equality,” the Office said.
“But the national gender pay gap is 14.2 per cent,” it said.
The Office said there was a gender pay gap in favour of men across all industries, even female-dominated ones.
It said women were significantly under-represented in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education and careers in Australia; under-represented in higher paid trades; and experienced significantly more sexual harassment in the workplace than men.
“Gender inequality in Australian workplaces is not explained simply by individual choices of women, although choice is a factor,” the Office said.
It said research showed the gender pay gap was influenced by a number of factors, including discrimination and bias in hiring and pay decisions; female-dominated industries and jobs attracting lower wages; women’s disproportionate share of unpaid caring and domestic work; lack of workplace flexibility to accommodate caring and other responsibilities; and women’s greater time out of the workforce impacting career progression and opportunities.
The Office made 10 recommendations to accelerate progress on gender equality in workplaces and streamline reporting for employers to WGEA.
The recommendations include actions to make it easier for employers to report to WGEA and improve WGEA’s data collection; publish organisation gender pay gaps at an employer level – not just at an industry level; bridge the ‘action gap’ with new gender equality standards that set targets; and reduce the regulatory burden for employers by replacing and refining particular questions in the WGEA reporting components.
Director of WGEA, Mary Wooldridge welcomed the Review’s recommendations and said they would improve the reporting experience for businesses; enhance insights from WGEA’s world-leading dataset; and deepen WGEA’s capacity to work closely with employers to support and accelerate their efforts.
The Office’s 96-page Review Report can be accessed at this PS News link.
