Why Australia needs to enforce a penalty for not paying men and women equally.

Over the past year or so since I have begun examining and discussing feminist issues, I have had many conversations with people from varying backgrounds about the existence of the gender pay gap and how to close it. Unfortunately, they have not always been effective. The majority of the time I have these conversations to attempt to provide pragmatic solutions that are backed by research (I think waiting until 2017 is long enough, don’t you?) I’m met with the adage “it’s just a myth”.

There is no shortage of excuses used to attempt to deny the existence of a gender pay gap. The most common one (as we all probably know) is that women choose to have less pay because they decide to have children throughout their career. Both women who have been the victim of the pay gap and people who recognise the entire issue all understand that women choose to have a child, but they don’t choose for their career to suffer.

Another common excuse is that there couldn’t possibly be a pay gap because it’s illegal to discriminate based on sex. Whilst that is true, there is this frequently denied concept called ‘unconscious bias’, which exists no matter how much you deny it. Of course, trying to explain this to some people is futile and results in frustration because apparently it means I’m a deluded misandrist (ok, whatever you say random internet “expert”). To those of us who are informed of the privileges granted in society, there is absolutely no doubt bias exists at an unconscious level. There is even documented evidence of it.

The biggest way critics of the pay gap fall into error is they consider it just to be an issue of the dollar amount a woman earns compared to a man, and that this can be easily explained by women’s choices. But there is more to it than that. The pay gap is a reflection of several intermingling factors, including industry and occupational segregation, leadership gaps, upbringing and, of course, bias. Collectively, these give rise to the assumption that the current system is based on merit, alternatively coined the ‘merit trap’, which it most certainly is not.

The more important question to ask is, why is it women’s fault? This habit of blaming women for everything that happens to them is the reason we’re still having discussions about basic rights in the 21st century. The message I want to send out to these people is that there are no excuses for the pay gap. The pay gap is here and it’s not just a women’s problem, it’s a society problem. And it needs to be fixed.

It is good to have this debate, but there is a reason why we are still having it in 2017. It is because the debate itself is leading us nowhere. People spend too much time trying to downplay, dispute or discredit the pay gap because they do not like the (apparently flawed) statistics to avoid acknowledging the issue and doing something about it so that they can maintain their powerful and privileged position. The fact is, it is easy for people (especially men) to sit back and say “well I haven’t experienced it, so it must not exist” whilst continuing to reap the benefits of a system that so obviously favours them. But I digress.

It is time to stop these pointless debates about whether the pay gap exists. We no longer need to debate it, because we already know it exists. The people who deny it exists are simply going to be left behind by society. What we need to do is take drastic measures to rectify it. I propose we stop trying to spend time crediting and discrediting each other and just mandate equal pay through legislation accompanying the Anti-Discrimination and Equal Opportunity Acts.

The current system

So far what we have in Australia is legislation that protects against discrimination based on sex, disability, race and so on. But the Australian government needs to do more. The government needs to apply pressure onto Australian employers, in private sectors especially, to make sure they are paying employees equally. The Equal Opportunity and Discrimination Acts only protect women on a superficial level. They do not stop those employers who use those excuses I mentioned above that are mostly to do with unconscious biases or a short sighted view of the bigger picture to justify paying women less. It is time to mandate pay reviews to finally close the gap and enforce a monetary penalty for not complying.

How do we do this?

Let’s take the Equal Opportunity Act in Victoria, which currently protects women against indirect discrimination under section 9, as well as under a general provision in section 18. These are not specific and targeted enough towards the pay gap, so a new part in the Act is needed, and this can be mirrored in other States’ legislation as well.

Let’s insert a Part titled ‘Pay and Wages’ with sections targeted specifically towards the issues identified as warning signs of the pay gap. These warning signs are all backed up by research that also provides tangible and pragmatic solutions for eradicating the signs and closing the gap once and for all. For a guide as to warning signs and specific measures to take to find and rectify a pay gap, a report recently released by Male Champions of Change is a recent, comprehensive summary of most, if not all, of the issues and provides methods for tackling them.

This a snapshot of what the new Part could look like:

Part 15: Pay and Wages:

Section 197: Conduct a review periodically

An employer must commit to conducting a pay equity review every 2 years, with a report as to findings and resolutions to be submitted to the Australian government or an established regulatory body for approval.

Section 198: Choices

A woman’s choice to have children or otherwise take time away shall not affect future earnings, her eligibility for promotion, or her treatment at work.

Section 199: Recruitment and retention

A company is to take special precautions to limit or otherwise eradicate unconscious bias such as blind recruitment, pay transparency, using market rates as a benchmark and monitoring pay increases across the organisation.

Section 200: Contravention

(1) A company is taken to have contravened this Part if they fail to conduct a pay equity review and report it to the Australian government or an established regulatory body.

(2) Contravention of this part will incur a monetary penalty as the government or body sees fit.

With some additions and refinements, this Part can give women reassurance that any choice she makes will not interfere with her career progression, pay, or perception in the workforce.

It’s time to stop arguing and start doing.

What do you think? Share or leave me a comment.

[Feminist in Law]