Gender Equality: Closing the Gender Pay Gap

This legislation will require Australia’s biggest employers (500+ employees) to prepare an annual Closing the Gender Pay Gap report, which will highlight any gaps in pay between men and women in their organisation, as well as the actions the business is taking to address them.

This new reporting scheme will also encourage employers to look at structural issues within their organisation that may be contributing to inequality of pay.

This legislation carefully balances the need to protect employees’ privacy, with the public expectation of greater scrutiny in this area. Notwithstanding this, I am here to work with businesses on any issues that may arise while implementing these new requirements and answer any questions.

As I canvassed in my speech to the Parliament, I firmly believe the next step on the pathway to true pay equality is to improve the accessibility of childcare. The benefits of expanding support for families using childcare facilities are substantial and pay both strong economic and social dividends.

Specifically, we should explore the possibility of making childcare expenses tax-deductible.

You can watch my full speech here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Bl2Xyy6ifk

While there is no silver bullet for this issue, any measure that result in more public accountability is a welcome step forward. We should be proud of the progress we have made over recent decades, while acknowledging that we still have some way to go in eliminating the gender pay gap entirely.