Gender pay inequality: It’s not about gender; it’s about transparency.

Women earn on average $263.90 less than men per week, a shocking fact that highlights the reason why Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced a new bill into parliament.

The Workplace Gender Equality Amendment Bill 2023 requires companies with 100 or more employees to disclose how much they are paying their workers. Albanese posted on Twitter to say: “Women should be paid the same as men. It’s as simple as that.”

The last few years have brought a LOT of changes to the world and to the world of work.

Our relationship with work has changed forever.

Collectively, we have different expectations of our employers. We want a better experience of work.

Transparency and trust are minimum expectations. Equal opportunity and pay should be a given. But they’re not.

The conversation is important, and the facts are indisputable.

Gender isn’t the issue; the problem is a lack of transparency

This story is as much about transparency and trust as it is about equality. Perhaps this is where the tide begins to turn.

Even if you’re a small organisation with less than 100 staff, pay transparency is well overdue.

People and culture teams across the country are busy conducting pay equity analysis, cross-referencing salaries against gender and revising compensation policies to ensure objectivity around how salaries are set, reviewed and increased. All of this makes good business sense, and it’s also the right thing to do.

Increasing transparency and trust between employers and employees is another chapter in the story of change we’re living in.

How to achieve pay transparency (regardless of gender)

Before this bill was passed, employers had an opportunity to be proactive and do the right thing. And those opportunities are still there.

Simple actions can help your organisation achieve transparency, resulting in a workplace built on trust.

Here are four ways to foster transparency in your recruitment process:

1. Disclose job salaries in your job postings: Publishing a realistic salary (or a bracket) will save you and job seekers from wasting time. Only people with matching expectations will apply.

2. Create and review your organisation’s structure: An organisation naturally evolves over time. Therefore, it is important to regularly review your structure to enable the business and its people to progress.

3. Define role competencies: Define and communicate the behavioural and technical competencies required to move from one role to another (or receive a pay rise). Employees must understand how to progress through the ranks and know that it is achievable.

4. Provide training and development: Ensure all employees have equal access to training, development, coaching and growth opportunities to provide everyone with the best possible experience of work. Developing skills and competencies allows employees to progress to a higher pay scale.

Final thoughts

Trust must be central to the employee experience, and it starts from the beginning of a job seeker’s journey. Disclosing salaries, explaining how to climb up the pay scale and providing the means to get there through training and development will help build a solid foundation of trust between an employer and its people. Transparency means there is no gender pay inequality.

For more insights on how to attract the right people, visit the Heart Talent blog.