General news

In late 2024, the FSU made a submission to the Federal Government’s Workplace Gender Equality Amendment Bill 2024 – a bill that is designed to take further steps towards closing the gender pay gap. 

The Bill requires big businesses with 500+ employees to set measurable targets for closing their gender pay gap.  

As a long-standing advocate on the need for employers to be held accountable for setting measurable targets to increase gender equality, the FSU welcomes the Bill, though we recommend amending it to apply to employers with over 100 employees. 

You can read the FSU’s full submission here.  

Under the proposed legislation, a menu of targets would be set, with employers choosing target areas such as women on boards, leadership, gender pay gap, flexibility, consultation on gender equality and more. 

While we welcome this requirement for a data-driven approach, target setting should be determined by current data and employers should be directed to set targets in areas where they have not set targets in the past, to avoid these requirements becoming a ‘box ticking’ exercise. 

Promisingly, the bill also links government procurement to those employers who achieve a compliance certificate from the Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA), providing further incentive for employers to improve their compliance. 

However, the FSU recommends that non-compliance disincentives should include automatic exclusion from receiving any government funding, grants and an automatic exclusion from procurement. 

FSU National Secretary Julia Angrisano said finance workers have a direct stake in the Federal Government’s work to improve gender equality.

“While the gender breakdown in the finance sector is almost at parity – 53%/47% in favour of women – women represent only 36% of workers in the top pay quartile and 67% in the bottom pay quartile,” Ms Angrisano said.

“Part time workers make up only 12% of the finance industry workforce, but 86% of part time workers are women.” 

FSU National Secretary Julia Angrisano also appeared at the WGEA hearing recently, where she spoke to our submission and ensured members’ voices were heard. 

We’ve got a long way to go – although it’s promising to see the gender pay gap closing three times faster now than under the previous Liberal government. With the right policies in place, and with the continued will from governments, business and all stakeholders to do more, we can get there.