Workplace Gender Equality Agency

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Workplace Gender Equality Agency
Workplace Gender Equality Agency logo.svg
Workplace Gender Equality Agency logo
Agency overview
Formed6 December 2012 (2012-12-06) [1]
Jurisdiction Australia
Headquarters309 Kent Street, Sydney
Minister responsible
Agency executive
Parent department Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet
Key document
  • Workplace Gender Equality Act 2012
Website wgea.gov.au

The Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA) is an Australian Government statutory agency responsible for promoting and improving gender equality in Australian workplaces. The agency was created by the Workplace Gender Equality Act 2012 and provides employers with advice, practical tools, and education to help them improve gender equality. [5] The Workplace Gender Equality Act 2012 was enacted by an amendment to the Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Act 1999, that changed its name to the Workplace Gender Equality Act and correspondingly changed the name of the Equality Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Agency to the Workplace Gender Equality Agency. [6] The Workplace Gender Equality Agency is part of the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet.

Contents

Activities

Non-public sector employers with 100 or more staff are required to report to the agency annually, between the first of April to the 31st of May, against six gender equality indicators: [7]

  1. Gender composition of the workforce
  2. Gender composition of governing bodies of relevant employers
  3. Equal remuneration between women and men
  4. Availability and utility of employment terms, conditions and practices relating to flexible working arrangements for employees and to working arrangements supporting employees with family or caring responsibilities
  5. Consultation with employees on issues concerning gender equality in the workplace
  6. Any other matters specified by the Minister: sex-based harassment and discrimination

The WGEA uses the data to develop confidential and customized Competitor Analysis Benchmark Reports for employers, which enables them to compare their performance to their peers. [8] The WGEA dataset covers 4 million employees, and provides a detailed insight into the state of gender equality in Australian workplaces at an industry and sector level. This data is publicly available and searchable at https://data.wgea.gov.au

While the data has been anonymised for release for over 10 years, on 27 February 2024 the first report openly listing the gender pay gap of nearly 5000 Australian public sector employers and businesses was released. [9] It revealed many of the companies and brands that are popular in Australia have substantial gender pay gaps. [10]

Key statistics

The following statistics were sourced from WGEA's 2017-18 dataset: https://www.wgea.gov.au/data/wgea-research/australias-gender-equality-scorecard

Agency director

Mary Wooldridge was announced as the new director of the Workplace Gender Equality Agency in April 2021. [11]

Before joining the Agency, Wooldridge served from 2006 to 2020 in the Victorian Parliament, including a term as Minister for Mental Health, Community Services, and Women’s Affairs. [11]

As minister, Wooldridge worked to implement the National Plan to Reduce Violence against Women and their Children 2010-2022 and was instrumental in establishing Our Watch, the national family violence prevention agency. She was the Minister responsible for signing Victoria up to the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS). She established the Victorian Commission for Children and Young People, including the nation’s first Aboriginal Commissioner, Parkville College – an award-winning Public School in Youth Justice Centres, and Australia’s first Mental Health Complaints Commissioner and the Family Drug Treatment Court.[ citation needed ]

Prior to being elected to Parliament, Wooldridge was the CEO of The Foundation for Young Australians and worked with McKinsey & Company and Consolidated Press Holdings. [11]

Related Research Articles

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Australian labour law</span> Rights and duties of workers, unions and employers in Australia

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Equal pay for equal work is the concept of labour rights that individuals in the same workplace be given equal pay. It is most commonly used in the context of sexual discrimination, in relation to the gender pay gap. Equal pay relates to the full range of payments and benefits, including basic pay, non-salary payments, bonuses and allowances. Some countries have moved faster than others in addressing equal pay.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Labor relations</span> Study of work and workers

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Occupational inequality is the unequal treatment of people based on gender, sexuality, age, disability, socioeconomic status, religion, height, weight, accent, or ethnicity in the workplace. When researchers study trends in occupational inequality they usually focus on distribution or allocation pattern of groups across occupations, for example, the distribution of men compared to women in a certain occupation. Secondly, they focus on the link between occupation and income, for example, comparing the income of whites with blacks in the same occupation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Equality Act 2010</span> UK law

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paycheck Fairness Act</span> Proposed law to address the gender pay gap

The Paycheck Fairness Act is a proposed United States labor law that would add procedural protections to the Equal Pay Act of 1963 and the Fair Labor Standards Act as part of an effort to address the gender pay gap in the United States. A Census Bureau report published in 2008 stated that women's median annual earnings were 77.5% of men's earnings. Recently this has narrowed, as by 2018, this was estimated to have decreased to women earning 80-85% of men's earnings. One study suggests that when the data is controlled for certain variables, the residual gap is around 5-7%; the same study concludes that the residual is because "hours of work in many occupations are worth more when given at particular moments and when the hours are more continuous. That is, in many occupations, earnings have a nonlinear relationship with respect to hours."

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gender pay gap</span> Average difference in remuneration amounts between men and women

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Women in Trinidad and Tobago</span> Overview of the status of women in Trinidad and Tobago

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Gender pay gap in India refers to the difference in earnings between women and men in the paid employment and the labor market. For the year 2013, the gender pay gap in India was estimated to be 24.81%. Further, while analyzing the level of female participation in the economy, this report slots India as one of the bottom 10 countries on its list. Thus, in addition to unequal pay, there is also unequal representation, because while women constitute almost half the Indian population, their representation in the work force amounts to only about one-fourth of the total.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Libby Lyons</span>

Libby Lyons is an Australian former public servant who served as the Director of the Australian Government's Workplace Gender Equality Agency. She was appointed Director in October 2015 and completed her term in April 2021. As Director, Lyons played a key role in promoting and improving gender equality in Australian workplaces.

Nicola Caroline Vincent is an English-born Australian government officer. She is the inaugural Public Sector Gender Equality Commissioner for Victoria, Australia. Prior to this, Vincent was the Commissioner for Equal Opportunity in South Australia (SA) from May 2016 to September 2020.

References

  1. "Workplace Gender Equality Act 2012". Federal Register of Legislation. 11 December 2012. Retrieved 9 May 2020.
  2. "Annual Report 2018-19" (PDF). Workplace Gender Equality Agency. 31 October 2019. Retrieved 9 May 2020.
  3. "Senator the Hon Marise Payne". Senators and Members of the Parliament of Australia . Retrieved 3 November 2021.
  4. "Our leadership team". Workplace Gender Equality Agency. Retrieved 9 May 2020.
  5. "Our role". Workplace Gender Equality Agency. Australian Government . Retrieved 12 March 2018.
  6. FaHCSIA. "Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Amendment Bill 2012". www.legislation.gov.au. Retrieved 22 October 2019.
  7. http://www.comlaw.gov.au/Details/C2012C00899/Download The Workplace Gender Equality Act 2012
  8. "The free business intelligence tool at your fingertips | WGEA". www.wgea.gov.au. Archived from the original on 13 June 2022. Retrieved 13 June 2022.
  9. "Employer gender pay gaps published first time | WGEA". www.wgea.gov.au. Retrieved 28 February 2024.
  10. "The companies that take lots of money from women, but don't give so much back". ABC News. 26 February 2024. Retrieved 28 February 2024.
  11. 1 2 3 Payne, Marise (19 April 2021). "New Director for the Workplace Gender Equality Agency".