'Overdue changes' needed to improve workplaces for women

• Introduce stronger equal pay laws in the Fair Work Act
• Pay superannuation on parental leave
• Implement all 55 recommendations of the Respect@Work report, including a positive duty on employers to prevent sexual harassment
• Legislate 10 days paid Family and Domestic Violence Leave into the National Employment Standards
• Introduce free, universal, accessible, and high-quality childhood education and care

The call from ACTU comes after their report found the following workplace disadvantages that shows women:

• Earn on average $483.30 less per week than a man and retire with about half the amount of super as a man.
• Are more likely to be in low wage and insecure work, and therefore more likely to have lost work or hours during the pandemic.
• Have a two in three chance of experiencing sexual harassment in a current or former workplace.
• No guaranteed right to paid family and domestic violence leave, despite a spike in family and domestic violence during the pandemic. 
• Rely on the second-worst paid parental leave scheme in the developed world, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.  
• Pay for some of the most expensive early childhood education and care in the world – with early childhood educators being extremely low paid.  

Alongside the report, ACTU also published a nationwide survey among 3,000 respondents that showed 77% of women saying the cost of living has gotten worse, 55% stating job security has gotten worse, and 56% saying the economy has gotten worse.

"This Government has talked a lot about its commitment to women but after nearly a decade in power women are worse off, with no improvement in sight," said ACTU president Michele O'Neil.

"Progress for working women has stalled and in some cases gone backwards under the watch of the Morrison Government," O'Neil added.

Read more: ACTU laments employers' failure to close the gender pay gap

Introducing Fair Pay

One of the problems found by the report was the gender pay gap between men and women in the workplace, with the latter at a disadvantage. As accusations hound the government for its alleged inaction over the problem, employers can take it upon themselves to help alleviate such issues inside their workplaces.

The Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA) previously urged employers to regularly pay audits and make sure that they are reported to boards, executives, and published publicly for accountability. This could help in recognising the pay gap between the genders as the first step of resolving them.

Employers should also start committing to actions that can reveal their biases, starting with how they recruit, select, and promote their employees. WGEA suggested the following actions for employers to move beyond the stereotypes and biases in the workplace:

• Use free online tools to check job advertisements for gender-neutral language
• Have gender-balanced interviewing panels
• Clearly advertise roles as being able to be performed flexibility