Equal Pay Day: 5 actions for equality
Monday, August 29, marks the 60 extra days after the end of the financial year that Australian women must work, on average, to earn the same annual salary earned by men.
Equal Pay Day 2022 recognises that it has taken until August 29 to close the national gender pay gap, which is 14.1 per cent this year – a rise of 0.3 percentage points over the last six months. Equal Pay Day marks the additional days from the end of the previous financial year that women, on average, must work to earn the same as men earned that year. It is a symbolic day that helps to raise awareness of the barriers women face in accessing the same financial rewards for their work as men.
Equal Pay Day is calculated by deriving the difference between women’s and men’s average weekly full-time earnings as a percentage of women’s earnings and multiplying this figure by 365 days. This tells us the additional number of days that women must work each financial year to earn the same as men. This differs from the gender pay gap calculation, which is expressed as a percentage of men’s earnings.
Key facts:
- On average, women working full-time earned $1,609.00 per week while men working full-time earned $1,872.90 per week.
- The full-time average weekly earnings difference between women and men is $263.90 per week
To mark the day, the Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA) is calling on employers to take urgent action on gender equality by pursuing five steps to close the gender pay gap. These 5 steps are:
- Conduct a pay gap audit, develop an action plan and establish accountabilities,
- Set targets to promote gender equality at all levels of the organisation,
- Design leadership roles that can be part-time and promote women into leadership positions,
- Normalise flexible working arrangements, and;
- Introduce a robust gender neutral paid parental leave policy.
Employers who had already embraced these practices and incorporated gender equality as a core part of their business strategy were reporting benefits to employee recruitment and retention, productivity and company profits. to find out more about gender equality in the workplace, how to incorporate it into your business strategy and to take action to address it, visit www.wgea.gov.au.