DESPITE AMBITIONS FOR EQUALITY, SECURITY’S GENDER SPLIT IS STILL FALLING SHORT OF EXPECTATIONS by David Braue
Can new transparency laws and better data help reach the 2030 gender equality target?
T
he Commonwealth Government’s moves
Announcing the new legislation, the Minister for
to mandate the disclosure of details
Women, Katy Gallagher, said women in Australia
about Australia’s gender pay gap may be
were earning 14.1 percent less than their male
a significant move towards the oft-stated
counterparts. And she said that, at current rates, it
goal of closing the gap by 2030, but the
would take 26 years to close the gender pay gap.
fact that such legislation is necessary highlights just how slow the push towards equality continues to be.
“Women have waited long enough for the pay gap to close,” Gallagher said. “Let’s not wait another quarter
The Workplace Gender Equality Amendment (Closing
of a century.”
the Gender Pay Gap) Bill 2023 — introduced into
10
Parliament on 8 February — will tap data already
During fiscal 2021-22, WGEA figures show women
provided by employers and will force companies
earned, on average, $26,596 less than men. They also
with 100 or more workers to publish data on their
show that, despite 53 percent of employers having
gender pay gap on the website of the Workplace
set some form of voluntary target for gender equality
Gender Equality Agency (WGEA), the national body
in the workplace, just one in five boards of directors
charged with promoting the cause of gender equality
were gender balanced and more than one in five
in Australia.
boards had no women members.
W O M E N I N S E C U R I T Y M A G A Z I N E
M A R C H • A P R I L 2023