Labor will push for women to receive equal pay to men through a raft of changes to increase pay orders in female-dominated industries.

On the final day of Labor’s conference the shadow minister for women, Tanya Plibersek, and workplace relations spokesman Brendan O’Connor will announce changes to restructure the Fair Work Commission and enshrine equal pay as an objective of the Fair Work Act.

In addition to the new objective – which will be considered in all pay decisions, including on the minimum wage and penalty rates – the bar for making an equal pay order will be lowered to boost pay in industries such as early childhood and aged care and disability services.

If elected, Labor will appoint a second Fair Work Commission president, who will preside over a pay equity panel to decide on equal pay cases, guided by a new equal remuneration principle.

Under the current system, employees and unions applying to raise women’s pay in line with men’s must first show women in that industry are underpaid compared with men performing work of equal or comparable value.

However, as Plibersek has previously argued, the system doesn’t correct for male and female workers both being paid less because an industry is female-dominated. For example, early-childhood educators can be paid $20 less an hour than metalworkers despite both requiring three-year qualifications.

In a statement Plibersek and O’Connor said: “We don’t need to compare female-dominated jobs with male-dominated jobs to know that female-dominated industries are often poorly paid – that’s just a fact.

“Low-paid workers should not have to rely on fighting complex, expensive legal cases to secure a decent wage rise.

“We will change the Fair Work Act to make it clear that establishing undervaluation of female-dominated industries does not require a male comparator.”

According to the Workplace Gender Equality Agency, women working full-time earn on average about 16% less than men, a figure that rises to 21% when total remuneration is considered.

Quick Guide What is the gender pay gap, and what must UK companies report? Show What is the gender pay gap? The gender pay gap is the difference between the average hourly earnings of men and women. The figure is expressed as a proportion of men’s earnings. According to the ONS, the gap between what UK male and female workers earn – based on median hourly earnings for all workers – was 17.9% in April 2018, down from 18.4% in April 2017. Data in 2018 showed that men were paid more than women in 7,795 out of 10,016 companies and public bodies in Britain. What is being published? All companies and some public sector bodies in Great Britain, except Northern Ireland, with more than 250 employees had to report their gender pay gap to the Government Equalities Office for the first time by by 4 April 2018. The second year of gender pay gap reports - and the first indicator of how public bodies and companies are performing - must be filed by April 2019 What’s the difference between the mean and the median figures? Commonly known as the average, the mean is calculated by adding up the wages of all employees and dividing that figure by the number of employees. The mean gender pay gap is the difference between mean male pay and mean female pay. The median gap is the difference between the employee in the middle of the range of male wages and the employee in the middle of the range of female wages. Typically the median is the more representative figure, because the mean can be skewed by a handful of highly paid employees. What will happen if companies don’t report? The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) said that, while it would approach employers informally at first if they failed to publish figures by the deadline, businesses could ultimately face “unlimited fines and convictions”. However, information published following a freedom of information request by the Guardian showed that no companies have been fined to date despite hundreds failing to accurately file their gender pay gap figures on time.

“One of the key drivers of the gap is the fact work in traditionally female-dominated industries is undervalued,” Plibersek and O’Connor said.

“The average woman working in the most feminised industries, such as healthcare, social assistance and education, is paid around $30,000 less than the average man working in the most male-dominated industries such as mining and construction.”

Since 1994 21 applications for equal pay have been made to the industrial tribunal but only one resulted in an equal pay order. In 2012 social and community services workers were awarded a pay rise when the Gillard Labor government promised to fund the increase.

Labor will also introduce a pay-equity unit in the commission to provide expert research on equal pay. Labor has already promised a $400m boost for women’s superannuation and a ban on pay secrecy clauses.

On 28 November the women’s minister, Kelly O’Dwyer, said the Coalition had delivered “a record level” of women participating in the workforce.

“We have also … seen the gender pay gap decrease under our government, but it increased under the previous Labor government,” she said.

“So despite all of Labor’s talk their record is not strong.”