SMEs could be audited in new Pay Equity push

A Parliamentary inquiry into the issue of pay equity has recommended the establishment of a special Pay Equity Unit within the Government’s Fair Work Australia agency, and suggested that this unit have the power to audit SMEs to discover how female workers are being paid.

The committee, which put forward a massive 63 recommendations in total, has also recommended that businesses with over 100 people should be made to report every two years “on the implementation of a diversity plan to increase pay equity”.

But Jaye Radisich, the chief executive of the Council of Small Business Organisations of Australia, has questioned whether placing a greater administrative burden on small businesses will go much to help close the gender pay gap.

“The immediate reaction I have to the proposal is that it is yet more red tape and more burden for small businesses,” she says.

Radisich, a former female parliamentarian and a long-time advocate for pay equity, says that while it is still unclear how frequent, widespread or onerous the SMEs audits would be, if a large number of businesses were impacted that would be a concern.

“As a general principle, more monitoring of the gender pay gap doesn’t solve the problem. This thing has been studied to death.”

“Investment needs to be made in helping businesses understand the needs of their female employees and how to integrate those needs with the needs of the business.”

Radisich would like to see more done to improve the ability of women to participate in the workforce, including improved access to childcare and the ability for small businesses to expense the cost of childcare to give them greater flexibility.

“Passing on a burden to SMEs is not going to address the cultural attitudinal or systemic problems.”

Other recommendations from the committee that could result in further changes to the Government’s new Fair Work Act and include amendments to IR and sex discrimination laws to make equal remuneration for men and women employees for work of comparable value the primary object of the legislation.

The committee also wants to see the Federal Government make pay equity a clear objective of the new modern awards that are due to come into effect on 1 January 2010. The committee also wants the Australian Industrial Relations Commission to report back prior to the finalisation of the awards – which is just weeks away – on “how pay equity principles have been achieved”.

“Australia needs to take a proactive approach to address the gender pay gap,” Committee Chair Sharryn Jackson said after the report was tabled in Parliament last night.

“Increasing women’s participation in the workforce will lead to increases in productivity for the nation. How can Australia afford not to do it?”

The committee’s full report can be accessed here.