About Damn Time: Labor Is Introducing Legislation to Close the Gender Pay Gap

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The government is coming for organisations that don’t pay their employees equally depending on their gender in the most brutal way possible: public naming and shaming of gender pay gaps.

In a move that appears to take its lead from that incredible Twitter bot that tweeted gender pay gaps of companies sharing international women’s day posts, the government is opting for radical transparency.

The “Workplace Gender Equality Amendment (Closing the Gender Pay Gap) Bill 2023” is one way the government says they’re delivering on a campaign promise to close the gender pay gap.

Introduced into Parliament on Wednesday, the bill will cut red tape and allow the Workplace Gender Equality Agency website to publish the gender pay gaps of employers with more than 100 workers.

Minister for Women, Senator Katy Gallagher, said in a statement that global experience shows transparency encourages organisations to take action to close the gender pay gap in their workplace. Basically, public shaming works.

“On average, women working full-time can expect to earn 14.1% less than men per week in their pay packets,” Gallagher said.

“The gender pay gap is also holding our economy back with $51.8 billion a year lost when it comes to women’s pay.

“On current projections it will take another 26 years to close the gender pay gap. Women have waited long enough for the pay gap to close – let’s not wait another quarter of a century.”

When the legislation passes, reporting of gender pay gaps will begin next year using data submitted by employers.

It’s not too far off the mark to say the government may have actually learned from the Gender Pay Gap Bot, given that the only way it was able to publish the gender pay gaps of companies is because it was UK based and the UK keeps a public record of this stuff.

Now that Australia will start doing the same, there’s nothing stopping some enterprising person out there from unleashing publish embarrassment on companies talking the talk but not walking the walk. Bring on the bots.

This article originally appeared on The Latch.