September 4th is Equal Pay Day for 2010.

The day marks the extra 66 days a financial year a woman would need to work in order to equal the income of their male colleagues.  The figure is based on the overall Australian gender pay gap of 18%;- in the finance sector, the gap is much higher at 28%,

Did you know?

• Women are two and a half times more likely to live in poverty in their old age than men; by 2019, women on average, will have half the amount of superannuation that men have.*
• In 2009, female graduate salaries were, on average, $3,000 less per annum than that of their male colleagues.  In some industries the difference is even higher.^

In Equal Pay week, FSU is meeting with 2 Banks to commence gender pay equity audits.  The audits aim to:

• identify where there are pay gaps
• discover any reasons for these gaps or barriers to women accessing higher paid roles, and
• make recommendations to overcome any gender pay gaps.

FSU will meet with NAB on Thursday to re-visit the original audit undertaken in 2006-07.  We want to see what progress has been made and what work still needs to be done.

On Friday, FSU starts work on a gender pay audit with Members’ Equity Bank.  The project will be assisted by Workforce Victoria.

What else can be done?

FSU continues to negotiate pay equity clauses in enterprise agreements and we eagerly await the results of a pay equity test case in Fair Work Australia.

Unfortunately the post-election situation means we’re waiting to hear about 2 key initiatives to assist in fighting the gender pay gap:

• the Minister for Women’s recommendation to improve the Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Act, based on a review last year.  Hopefully this will result in stronger reporting from companies, including banks, about their pay outcomes and work/life practices.
• Legislation around the Making it Fair Report.  This Report of a House of Representatives Inquiry into Pay Equity recommended mandatory reporting, a pay equity unit in Fair Work Australia and resources for companies to undertake pay equity work.

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  *‘Women and Superannuation’, Focus on Women, Office for Women Information Paper, Qld Govt, (2009).
  ^Graduate Statistics Online, (2009).