The one thing we could do on International Women’s Day to advance gender pay equity

I have a complicated relationship with International Women’s Day.

On one level, I object to the millions of dollars corporate Australia must collectively shell out on venue hire, inspirational speakers and breakfast pastries each year. Perhaps such monies might be better directed to actually giving female staff the pay bump required to achieve pay equity with their male colleagues?

I have a complicated relationship with International Women’s Day.Credit: iStock

On another level, however, I do see the importance of women getting together to discuss their unique challenges in the workforce and share strategies for overcoming them.

I’ve only ever attended two International Women’s Day events, from memory. And I’m sitting this one out having knocked back an early morning breakfast invite which is incompatible with my caring responsibilities (sidenote: can we please stop organising corporate events outside of school hours?).

I do, however, have one suggestion as to how we could transform future International Women’s Day events into truly powerful moments for advancing women’s pay equality.

And it arises from recent changes to the Australian law governing so-called “pay secrecy” clauses in employment contracts.

Recent changes have been made to the Australian law governing “pay secrecy” clauses in employment contracts.Credit: Gabriele Charotte

Gender equality advocates have long argued women need access to better information about actual pay rates in their workplaces to know if they are being underpaid relative to their male colleagues.

Countries including the United Kingdom, the United States, Denmark and Canada have all moved to crack down on pay secrecy clauses in contracts forbidding employees from disclosing their salary and bonuses to other employees or competitors.

In early December last year, Australia followed suit, with changes to the Fair Work Act introduced by the Albanese government.

Under the changes, workers have a new right to disclose their pay and also to ask others what they are paid. Importantly, everyone also has the right to not answer such questioning.

However, it will take some time before the changes wash through the system.

For contracts entered into from December 7 last year, employers are forbidden from taking action against any employees who breach “pay secrecy” clauses. From June, it will be illegal for contracts to have pay secrecy clauses written into them at all and companies face fines for doing so.

However, anyone on a contract signed prior to December 7 with a pay secrecy clause included is still bound by that contract until you either sign a new contract, or have your existing contract varied in some way, such as a pay rise.

So, in reality, not every Aussie worker is at liberty – yet – to shout their pay from the rafters.

It’s time we broke the pay secrecy taboo with our colleagues.Credit: iStock

Not that many are champing at the bit to do so, it must be said.

Of all the taboos around money, talking about one’s pay has got to be the most difficult to break down.

Employers have long argued disclosure of pay causes jealousy and disquiet among employees who discover they are relatively lower paid.

However, it is precisely this disquiet, I would argue, which needs to be unleashed to encourage women to push for higher pay.

So, for anyone not currently bound by an existing pay secrecy clause, I urge everyone – both men and women – to consider using this International Women’s Day as the trigger to start a conversation about what you are paid, either with colleagues or competitors.

Knowledge is power, and until women realise they are underpaid, there is little they can do about it.

It’s particularly important that men serious about supporting women’s equality join the conversation and agree to share their own info to help female colleagues.

If we are to have this conversation, everyone needs to agree that nobody is allowed to get shirty with a colleague about what is disclosed. There are many good reasons why some people are paid different amounts, owing to relative performance, length of service, negotiation skill and willingness to switch employers to bargain for higher pay.

So, if you do ask a colleague and discover they are paid more than you, don’t begrudge them, simply ask them how they got there.

If you are interested in broaching this tricky topic with a colleague, one potential script could be to simply ask them if they’ve seen a very fascinating article in the newspaper by Jessica Irvine that suggests it could be mutually beneficial to quietly swap salary information. To which you might breezily add: are you up for it?

Another potentially significantly less awkward strategy is for employees to band together at the workplace level to have a slightly more anonymised discussion around pay. In the United States, a former Google employee created a spreadsheet that was then filled out by around 1200 employees to reveal and share their pay. At Microsoft, employees did much the same, creating a private group and spreadsheet to share information.

Getting this information across to employers is potentially valuable, too. Perhaps organisers of next year’s International Women’s Day events – particularly those providing a networking opportunity across a particular industry or occupation – could replace the traditional lucky door prize with a bowl into which attendees could drop cards detailing their own salary, occupation, part-time or full-time status and level of experience, which could be later shared with attendees.

Or, if you really want to spice up an International Women’s Day event you’re attending this year, why not find a way to casually steer conversation towards the topic of ending pay secrecy, swap some pay numbers and get a real discussion going about gender pay equity in your industry.

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