Tigers CEO Brendon Gale has committed to addressing the gender pay gap in like-for-like roles within the Richmond Football Club.
Gale, along with 122 Australian business leaders, has publicly committed to addressing the pay gap which tips the scales in favour of men, supporting a new and comprehensive resource released by the Male Champions of Change coalition today.
Closing the Gender Pay Gap report offers a step-by-step guide to ensuring equal pay for equal work, drawn from strategies and tips developed by some of Australia’s top businesses over recent years. The resource is designed to help organisations large and small accelerate their efforts to achieve pay equity.
According to the Workplace Gender Equality Agency, Australia’s average gender pay gap currently sits at 15.3 per cent, reflecting the overall position of women in the workforce. This difference is driven by a range of factors, including the underrepresentation of women in leadership positions and significant disparities in earnings between male-and-female-dominated industries and occupations.
Closing the Gender Pay Gap explains the various ways in which gender pay gaps can emerge and identifies the workplace conventions and fallacies that fuel them. It provides methodologies for assessing and ensuring equity through different remuneration types – fixed, variable, total and benefits - and other pay-related mechanisms such as commissions, location loading, non-monetary opportunities and benefits, and flexible working.
The report concludes with best practice approaches to prevent and respond to like-for-like pay gaps covering: the timing and frequency of gender pay gap reviews; the interrelationship with performance reviews and processes; the relationship to recruitment and retention; to salary setting; and in addressing the gender wealth gap through, for example, superannuation payment policies.
“Addressing the national gender pay gap requires the effort of our whole community,” said Libby Lyons, Director of the Workplace Gender Equality Agency. “Employers must step up and play their part. All leaders have the power to analyse their data and take action on pay gaps within their organisations.”
The signatories to the Closing the Gender Pay Gap report are inviting other Australian leaders to join forces with them in addressing these issues. They include leaders from Business, Property, Sport Architecture, the public service and Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM).
Gale said we need to do more to close the gender pay gap “this is an issue that we must address across all industries in Australia. Drawing attention to equal pay for equal work is the first step to closing the gap on what should no longer be a part of any organisation.”
MCC Founder and Chair, Elizabeth Broderick, said having leaders step up on this issue would accelerate the advancement of gender equality in our society: “This is a joint and concerted effort to help make unjustifiable pay differences in like-for-like roles for men and women a matter of history in Australia,” she said.
The Closing the Gender Pay Gap report and resources within was developed from, and builds upon, work and leadership undertaken by the Property Male Champions of Change with support from EY.
