Work on accounting’s pay parity issues continues as equality legislation marks 40 years

“Australia has made significant progress since then, but there is still more work to do. We must continue building workplaces where women are valued equally, have the same opportunities to participate and lead, and can fulfil their potential,” Minister Gallagher said.

In its latest findings, the agency found a significant range in pay gaps among the largest mid-tier accounting firms, with some firms reporting gender pay gaps as large as 24 per cent.

The data revealed that Grant Thornton currently has the largest percentage of women working in roles within the upper-earning quartile among the five largest mid-tier firms.

Compared to when the legislation was first passed in 1986, less than half of Australian women were active in the labour force; today, close to two-thirds of Australian women are participating in the national labour force.

The legislation gave birth to the WGEA and required large employers to identify and address barriers facing women.

Currently, WGEA collects and publishes data from around 10,500 employers who employ almost 5.9 million Australians.

“Forty years ago, this landmark legislation recognised that achieving equality required more than good intentions. It required employers to understand the barriers facing women and take action to remove them and it set the foundations for WGEA to emerge as a world leading institution for workplace gender equality, with a world leading dataset to drive evidence-based change,” Gallagher said.

“Our workforce has changed enormously over the past 40 years. The next challenge is to ensure the way we design work keeps pace with our ambitions for gender equality, so we can increase participation, strengthen productivity and create opportunities for everyone to succeed.”