Women in financial services seriously disadvantaged on pay
Women in the finance sector on average get paid 28 per cent less than men who work in the same industry, according to the Finance Sector Union (FSU).
The FSU highlighted the pay gap, based on Australian Bureau of Statistics’ data, at the launch of the Equal Pay Day on Saturday.
FSU national secretary, Leon Carter, highlighted the gender pay gap in the finance sector is the worst in Australia, compared to the country’s average of 18 per cent.
“We must get to the bottom of this issue, to not only gain a better understanding of why this pay gap exists, but to also develop solutions, for the good of the whole finance sector,” he said.
The FSU will meet with the National Australia Bank (NAB) to re-visit the original gender pay equity audit from 2006/07 and discuss what progress has been made since then. The union will also start work with ME Bank on a gender pay audit and will again meet with Suncorp.
These projects, assisted by Workforce Victoria, aim to identify and discover reasons for the gender pay gaps, and make recommendations to overcome this issue.
The FSU said it is waiting to hear about two key initiatives to assist in “fighting the gender pay gap”.
These include the Minister for Women’s recommendation to improve the Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Act and the introduction of legislation around the Making it Fair report, House of Representatives’ inquiry into pay equity, which recommended mandatory reporting and a Pay Equity unit in Fair Work Australia.
The union noted that last year; female graduate salaries were $3,000 less per annum than that of their male colleagues.
The Queensland government’s Women and Superannuation information paper predicted that by 2019, women on average would have half the amount of superannuation that men have.
AUTHOR
Milana Pokrajac
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