Each of the major banks, insurers and other major employers met in Melbourne on July 18 to consider the issue of pay equity in the finance sector.
FSU hosted the Symposium to debate this important issue and hear about possible solutions to the gender pay gap - which still sits at 23%. That is, in over 30 years since the Equal Pay cases, women in the finance sector still earn on average just 77% of what men earn.
There's a variety of reasons for this pay gap - including the predominance of women in low paid jobs, the move to market and performance based pay and unfair job evaluation systems.
NAB are the first employer in the industry to publicly commit to fixing the pay gap, working jointly with FSU to conduct an audit of their pay outcomes. NAB also co-sponsored the Symposium along with the Department of Industrial Relations in Victoria.
FSU members heard from pay equity experts, the Human Rights and Equal opportunity commission, NAB and FSU and discussed the key issues and some possible solutions. The "Pay Equity: A Way Forward" day will hopefully be the start of an industry push towards more pay audits and a long-term solution to the gender pay gap.
Union calls on finance industry to get serious about pay equity
The latest round of ABS pay data shows the pay gap in the finance and insurance industry remains entrenched with women continuing to earn on average just 77% of their male counterparts.
The ABS Employees Earnings and Hours paper has rated the finance and insurance industry as having the widest gap in female to male earnings ratios and is another in a long list of bad report cards for the industry.
The Finance Sector Union has labeled the statistic a blight on an industry that employs more women than men, enjoys one of the healthiest levels of profitability and prides itself as progressive on workplace diversity.
The Union is calling on employers in the sector to begin seriously addressing the issue or face the prospect of alienating talented employees and entrenching a perception of the industry as incapable or intransigent on addressing discriminatory practice.
Paul Schroder, National Secretary of the FSU, said "As an industry we just can't put our heads in the sand over the issue. It is complex and it takes a cooperative approach to identifying the causes and working through the remedies."
"FSU has invited the industry to start working with us on correcting the gap. The National Australia Bank has taken up this initiative and should be applauded for its work to date, with a report on our joint work expected in the next few weeks."
"But it will take more than one employer to correct the industry picture. It's time all employers started to take a collective responsibility for the issue and engaged with us and other academic and government agencies to address pay equity in the finance industry now." Said Mr. Schroder.