Gender segregation strongly driving Australia's gender pay gaps
Addressing Australia's persistent gender pay gap will require a "redesign" of the systems that contribute to its production, according to advocates of workplace gender equality.
Elizabeth Broderick, founder of the Champions of Change Coalition, said gender pay gaps reflect specific patterns that can help employers and sectors better target their actions.
"Gender pay gaps reflect how work is organised, who works where, who progresses, who holds the highest-value roles, and how caring responsibilities interact with and impact opportunities for remuneration and reward," Broderick said in a statement.
"We are now at a point where if we want to achieve better results, we must redesign the systems that produce them."
Broderick, who is also Australia's former Sex Discrimination Commissioner, made the remarks as the latest Workplace Gender Equality Agency data revealed that the country's gender pay gaps remain above 11%.
It also indicates that employers in high-paying and male-dominated industries are more likely to record the largest pay gaps.
Gender segregation driving pay gaps
A major contributor to the persistent pay gap is the "entrenched" occupational gender segregation across Australian industries and roles, according to the Champions of Change Coalition.
It cited Jobs and Skills Australia data, noting that only around 21% of Australians work in gender-balanced occupations.
Nearly 70% of jobs have also remained at the same level of segregation for more than 15 years.
"Across our Members and the economy, workforce gender segregation remains one of the core drivers of pay gaps. It shapes who enters which roles, who progresses, and who gains the experience that leads to Executive and CEO positions," said Champions of Change Coalition CEO Julie Bissinella in a statement.
"Redesigning these pathways is critical to solving skills shortages, building women's economic security, and closing gender pay gaps."
The coalition recently released a model on how to address gender segregation at work. Its priority areas include:
- Addressing outdated perceptions of occupations or sectors that can exclude women
- Engaging and activating a diverse next generation of the pipeline
- Developing supported career pathways for [gender-equal] and diverse talent
- Building safe, respectful, and inclusive workplace cultures
- Ensuring leadership engagement and accountability in advancing inclusive gender equality
"If you care about productivity, capital allocation, and leadership depth, you should care about what is driving your gender pay gaps," said Andrew Stevens, chair of the Champions of Change Coalition, in a statement.
"Instead of an annual number to review, boards must treat gender pay gaps as a governance issue. They can signal succession risk, labour supply risk, and capital allocation risk."
According to the coalition, addressing gender segregation at work can bring about the following gains:
- Improving the national economy's productivity and resilience, and reducing gender pay gaps
- Widening national talent pools
- Strengthening the workforce capability and supply for businesses
- Enabling people to choose career pathways freely based on preferences unconstrained by social expectations
