A NUMBER of Bendigo agencies have welcomed federal Labor’s focus on the gender pay gap.
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But some but have queried whether the party’s proposed method to reduce inequality will drive change.
Under a Labor government, mandatory reporting on the difference between men’s and women’s wages would be introduced for companies with more than 1000 employees.
“This information's already collected by the Workplace Gender Equality Agency,” Deputy Leader of the Opposition, Tanya Plibersek said.
“The difference is the information will now be made public.
“We believe that, by asking large companies to report on the difference between men and women's wages in their company, they'll focus even more on reducing that gender pay gap in their business.”
WGEA would be required to publish information about whether companies with more than 1000 employees had audited their gender pay gap and reported the result to their board.
Member for Bendigo Lisa Chesters said there were a number of large organisations with a presence in the electorate that would be directly impacted by the proposal.
While the initiative would not apply to smaller businesses, Ms Chesters said it was intended to drive cultural change.
Be.Bendigo chief executive Dennis Bice said big businesses were all working towards eliminating the gender pay gap in their organisations anyway, in his experience.
“I’d be really surprised if businesses weren’t running up to specifications,” he said.
Women’s Health Loddon Mallee executive officer Tricia Currie said she would have liked to have seen greater emphasis on modelling the things companies could do to reduce the gender pay gap, and examples of where they’d been successfully implemented.
“We know you need a stick, but you also need a carrot,” she said.
In instances where organisations were slow to implement gender pay gap auditing and reporting, Ms Currie said it would be helpful to provide an analysis of why.
In Australia, men earn an average of $244.80 per week more than women working full-time. The national full-time gender pay gap is 14.6 per cent.
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