Source : Perth Now news
Professional Australian women are losing confidence in the effect of publicly available gender pay gap data, according to new research.
In the wake of Australia-wide gender pay gap data, a separate survey has found only 5 per cent of women now believe their employer is actively working to address the gender pay gap, down from 51 per cent the previous year.
The survey polled an even split of 2000 women and men at Australian workplaces in January.
“We are witnessing a quiet but profound collapse in confidence among women in corporate Australia,” Anna Volkova, an executive with payroll, finance and HR platform HiBob which commissioned the research, said.
“When the majority of the female workforce feels the needle isn’t moving, especially during economic and geopolitical uncertainty when equity initiatives can lose momentum, this suggests transparency alone has reached its limit as a catalyst for genuine equality.
“While transparency creates visibility, visibility without sustained action erodes trust.”
Data from the federal government Workplace Gender Equality Agency released this week shows Australia’s gender pay gap has narrowed to 11.2 per cent – on average, every dollar a man is paid, women earn 88.8 cents.
Every Australian company, corporate group and public service organisation with more than 100 employees now has to report its gender pay gap data, and the third data dump spreadsheet of this information was released on Tuesday.
Finance and insurance firms have bigger and more frequent gender pay gaps than miners, construction firms and the trades.
The sharing of this corporate gender pay gap data is part of a suite of reforms enacted since 2012.
Another step in the reforms are, organisations with more than 500 staff need to file with the government their gender equality policies.
The private sector has had 12 months to lodge these, and the policies must be in before April 1. The public sector had to file their policies last year.
“To prevent the upcoming April 1 targets mandate from becoming a mere box-ticking exercise, businesses must actually show employees the path to parity due to some blind spots in the workplace,” Ms Volkova said.
“Three in four men believe roles are paid equally, yet only 59 per cent women agree.
“This disparity is further fuelled by a growing promotion paradox, with more women than last year believing men are still being promoted at higher rates.”
It is illegal to pay someone less because of their gender. The workplace equality agency gender pay gap data is a reflection of men holding more high-paying roles at a vast number of organisations.
