The research, Gender Equity Insights 2018: Inside Australia’s Gender Pay Gap, by the Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre (BCEC) and the Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA), showed that the resources sector’s gender pay gap was one of the lowest in Australia at 15 per cent, compared to a 22.5 per cent industry-wide gap.
The Chamber of Minerals and Energy chief executive officer Reg Howard-Smith said the results reflected a concerted effort by the resources sector in the past few years to reduce the pay gap between its male and female employees, as well as create more opportunities in the workforce for women.
“The resource industry’s commitment to drive greater pay equity is now bearing fruit, with year on year reductions in gender pay gap,” he said.
Specific actions taken by resources companies to reduce the pay gap include:
- Conducting annual gender pay equity audits, with 60 per cent of resources companies conducting audits compared to 38 per cent of companies across all industries;
- Analyzing the data from audits and correcting like-for-like gaps; and
- Reporting the results to the Executive and Board.
“As more and more companies adopt this systematic organizational approach of measuring, taking action and reporting, we will see further reductions in the gender pay gap,” Mr Howard-Smith said.
“The resources sector is committed to continual improvement in this area, recognizing there is still some way to go before we achieve full equality and inclusion in the workforce. However today’s results are encouraging and show that we are on the right track.”
The full report is available at: http://bcec.edu.au/publications/bcec-reports/
