BEERG Newsletter - Pay Transparency: Australia orders data publication

Australia has become the latest country to insist on gender pay transparency. On February 8^th the government presented a text to the Senate proposing the mandatory publication of gender equality data by businesses with more than 100 staff. 

From 2024 onwards, the percentage of women in the company, the proportion of women in management bodies, the gender pay gap, and the possibility for securing working arrangements adapted to mothers in particular will be made public. 

Since 2012, this information had to be filed by companies with the Agency for Gender Equality at Work, but it was not published. The text adds a requirement to transmit data on sexual harassment and gender-based violence. The executive will set standards for each indicator that have to be met in order to avoid the ‘name and shame’ provided for in the Workplace Gender Equality Act 2012. 

In addition to reports published specifically for each company, the National Agency will send benchmarks per sector to their CEOs, who will be required to share them with their management bodies. Women’s Minister Katy Gallagher was quoted in the Australian press as saying, “The gender pay gap is also holding our economy back with $51.8 billion a year lost when it comes to women’s pay,” (the Australian gender pay gap is 14%). The Labour government already promised to improve access to training for women at a Jobs and Skills Summit in September 2022

A recent article in the Harvard Business Review here asks if pay “transparency a good thing?” Is it yielding desirable outcomes for individuals and organizations? It notes that a “wave of recent academic studies has begun to provide important — but often complicated — answers.”