Stephanie Corsetti reported this story on Wednesday, July 29, 2015 08:25:00

MICHAEL BRISSENDEN: The Parliament might be struggling to get more women on the benches but at least once they get there they get the same pay as the men.



But not the case for many women across many other areas of the workforce.



The ANZ bank is launching a discussion paper today revealing the problems with pay start early and are deeply embedded within the system.



The financial institution hopes other sectors will follow its lead and implement sweeping changes.



Stephanie Corsetti reports.



STEPHANIE CORSETTI: There are more women in the Australian workforce than ever before.



Today's ANZ whitepaper shows female participation has risen by more than 25 per cent over the past three decades.



But there are constant hurdles facing women to gain equal pay, including a lack of flexibility when taking time out to care for family members.



One of the nation's biggest banks is introducing measures to level out the differences between men and women.



The Head of Global Wealth at ANZ is Joyce Phillips.



JOYCE PHILLIPS: The report has found that full-time female workers are paid on average $295 per week less than men - this is $15,000 dollars a year. And over the entire career of these women, the gap extends to around $700,000 dollars. And that's about the average price of an Australian home, so it's a significant gap so that 18.8 per cent.



STEPHANIE CORSETTI: The bank is implementing superannuation contributions for up to two years for staff returning from paid and unpaid parental leave and a website with targeted financial advice for women.



The top-up of superannuation for female employees in particular is also a tactic to boost women's retirement savings.



ELIZABETH BRODERICK: I think it's incumbent on the employer to step up because what the research would suggest is that in most organisations there is a pay differential and indeed it's the widest it's ever been.



STEPHANIE CORSETTI: This is an issue that the Sex Discrimination Commissioner Elizabeth Broderick is keen to address.



ELIZABETH BRODERICK: Many women will live in poverty in retirement because of a gender pay gap, but also because they've taken time out to care - and particularly to care for children and to care for parents.



So what we've started doing is to the reframe this issue and to start to ask: is poverty to be a reward for a lifetime spent caring? Because that's where many women are at in our nation.



STEPHANIE CORSETTI: The Workplace Gender Equality Agency says the pay gap highlights how women face poorer financial outcomes than men.



The agency's director is Louise McSorley.



LOUISE MCSORLEY: So getting early financial literacy training and for a woman understanding your financial position and being able to manage that longer term is essential to retirement.



STEPHANIE CORSETTI: Ms McSorley says equal pay legislation hasn't fixed the problem but many organisations are working towards a solution.



LOUISE MCSORLEY: Fifty per cent of the financial institutions that report to us last year did a gender pay gap analysis, but there's more to be done.



Professional and scientific services, similarly, 40 per cent of those organisations also did a gender pay gap analysis. But we know that those are the sectors where the gender pay gaps are the highest.



STEPHANIE CORSETTI: In the Federal Parliament women are under-represented.



The ANZ report says less than a third of parliamentarians across all states, territories and the nation overall are women.



Ms Phillips says she previously thought quotas were the wrong approach, but has since changed her mind.



JOYCE PHILLIPS: I haven't in the past been a supporter of quotas, although I'm open-minded because we haven't delivered the progress that we'd like to see.



So I do think targets are absolutely critical and that's really why this whitepaper that we're launching, Barriers to Achieving Financial Gender Equity, I think it's critical.



MICHAEL BRISSENDEN: Joyce Phillips from ANZ ending Stephanie Corsetti's report.

