IT and engineering firms on notice with light shining on gender pay gaps, Townsville lawyer says

A leading Townsville lawyer says North Queensland’s engineering and IT firms will have gender pay gaps exposed when new public business disclosure laws take effect.

Legislation soon to kick in means large companies have to share their gender pay gap data, but a leading North Queensland employment lawyer says disability is the most common workplace discrimination issue in the region.

The new public business disclosure laws mean companies with more than 100 employees will have to show their pay disparities between men and women.

Nationally the gender pay gap is 13 per cent, but it widens to 21.7 per cent when the Workplace Gender Equality Agency takes into account total remuneration, part time and casual employees.

The Workplace Gender Equality Agency is the government body which will publish the data.

Under the agency’s metric, women in Australia earn 78 cents for every dollar men do. And that disparity is the lowest it has ever been in this country.

Women make up 51 per cent of the Australian workforce, but just 22 per cent of chief executives are female.

Finance Minister and Minister for Women Katy Gallagher says increasing the minimum wage for aged care workers, banning pay secrecy clauses and amendments to the Workplace Gender Equality Act will close the gender pay gap. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Martin Ollman

Leading Townsville employment lawyer Michelle Morton said employees at North Queensland engineering and IT firms would likely have the largest pay gaps, because engineers and IT workers were paid above award and collective agreement rates.

“There are also industries where due to the pressures, either by way of sales or performance, the gap may be by choice not based just on gender,” Ms Morton said.

Leading Townsville employment lawyer Michelle Morton. Picture: Evan Morgan

“... but based on a conscious choice by a male or female to choose a particular salary band where the performance and expectations of the employer match those of the employee.”

Ms Morton, a Queensland Law Society accredited specialist in workplace relations, said disability was a more common source of discrimination in North Queensland workplaces than gender, religion, age or ethnicity.

However, employers did not always make it known any of a host of attributes like sex, pregnancy, parental status, beliefs or family responsibility had been taken into account when setting salary and working conditions, Ms Morton said.

The average annual pay difference between men and women in Australia narrowed by $1322 in 2023, but the average gulf is still $26,393.

“Employers who adopt best practice with respect to how they calculate salaries and wages will often have processes and policies in place which make it difficult to establish that gender has been taken into account when setting the salary.”

Transparency with the new pay gap data laws would encourage companies to have clear criteria on salary setting so the basis of employee pay could be explained, she said.

The Workplace Gender Equality Agency will publish the gender pay gaps for every Australian employer with 100 or more employees on February 27.

The current agency-assessed wage gap means Australian women earn on average $26,393 less per year than men.

Originally published as IT and engineering firms on notice with light shining on gender pay gaps, Townsville lawyer says