Pay Gap Analysis
The wage gap has yet again received some much deserved scrutiny as the Australian Greens political party, a left-wing environmentalist party who have gained increasing support from the Australian public in recent years, released on 31 July, 2015 that they will be introducing a bill to parliament in the next month which aims to eliminate “salary secrecy” within workplaces by banning “pay gag clauses” and ensuring that existing “gag clauses” are unenforceable. “Gag clauses” are contractual clauses which prohibit employees from discussing their pay with colleagues, effectively decreasing the pay transparency within the firm. Consequently, employees who do choose to discuss their pay, despite these gag clauses, may be subject to disciplinary
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action ranging in severity from receiving a warning or being sacked.
According to the Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA), full-time working Australian women on average earn AUD$293.10 less per week less than their male counterparts.
____, the national gender pay gap has risen in the past ten years from 14.9% to 18.8%.
The WGEA shows that there is a direct correlation between the pay gap and salary secrecy. In the public sector where employees are allowed to discuss their pay with their colleagues, the pay gap is 12.3% in comparison to the private sector, where the majority of organisations impose gag clauses, in which the pay gap is 22.4%.
"The gender pay gap is worst where pay is kept secret and women often find out they are being paid less than their male colleagues after years on the job," Greens spokesman for women Larissa Waters said, stating that the bill was a necessary step to ensure that the gap between the pay of women and men is bridged.
Gag clauses contribute to this disproportionate setting of wages as they …show more content…
prevent
While the bill has yet to be proposed in Australian parliament, never mind actually being passed, it’s great to see Australia is finally at least trying to catch up with other countries when it comes to equality.
In past few years since the commencement of the Abbott government, Australia has continued to lag behind its fellow countries. The Abbott government has denied the existence of climate change, turned a blind eye to the legalisation of gay marriage within several countries (including America and Ireland), and has continually failed to provide basic human rights to asylum seekers – proudly proclaiming that they have “stopped the
boats.”
Hopefully Australia can at least catch up in this aspect – we can’t continue to lag behind the rest of the world forever.
action ranging in severity from receiving a warning or being sacked.
According to the Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA), full-time working Australian women on average earn AUD$293.10 less per week less than their male counterparts.
____, the national gender pay gap has risen in the past ten years from 14.9% to 18.8%.
The WGEA shows that there is a direct correlation between the pay gap and salary secrecy. In the public sector where employees are allowed to discuss their pay with their colleagues, the pay gap is 12.3% in comparison to the private sector, where the majority of organisations impose gag clauses, in which the pay gap is 22.4%.
"The gender pay gap is worst where pay is kept secret and women often find out they are being paid less than their male colleagues after years on the job," Greens spokesman for women Larissa Waters said, stating that the bill was a necessary step to ensure that the gap between the pay of women and men is bridged.
Gag clauses contribute to this disproportionate setting of wages as they …show more content…
prevent
While the bill has yet to be proposed in Australian parliament, never mind actually being passed, it’s great to see Australia is finally at least trying to catch up with other countries when it comes to equality.
In past few years since the commencement of the Abbott government, Australia has continued to lag behind its fellow countries. The Abbott government has denied the existence of climate change, turned a blind eye to the legalisation of gay marriage within several countries (including America and Ireland), and has continually failed to provide basic human rights to asylum seekers – proudly proclaiming that they have “stopped the
boats.”
Hopefully Australia can at least catch up in this aspect – we can’t continue to lag behind the rest of the world forever.