Remember equal pay day on September 4

Minister for Women Karen Struthers and Industrial Relations Minister Cameron Dick have reminded Queenslanders to take action on Equal Pay Day tomorrow.

Ms Struthers said the initiative was an important day aimed at making sure the wider community understood the benefits of equal pay for men and women and the benefits of maintaining equitable workplaces.

Mr Dick said the Bligh Government was leading the way when it came to promoting equality in the workplace.

"We have the first woman to be elected Premier in any state or territory and women make up almost half the Labor caucus," Mr Dick said.

"Under our Women on Boards strategy, 50% of all new appointments to Queensland Government boards should be women."

Ms Struthers said women accounted for 30% of senior positions across government departments.

"In some departments such as Queensland Health, women are employed in 64% of senior positions," she said.

"This is in contrast to the private sector where women account for about 10% of senior management positions nationally.

"We have staff from the Office for Women outposted in government departments across the state to make sure gender equity issues are imbedded into policy development.

"We also committed $414 million over four years in response to a pay equity decision by the Queensland Industrial Relations Commission.

"The decision acknowledged that community service workers, a predominantly female workforce, weren't getting paid as well as people working in other areas with similar qualifications and similar levels of responsibility."

Ms Struthers said that while progress was being made towards ensuring women received equal pay for equal work, there was still work to be done.

"The way it is at the moment, Australian women earn an average of about 17% less than men," Ms Struthers said.

"That means women need to work an extra 60 days to be paid the same as men."

Mr Dick said there were simple steps businesses and organisations could take towards addressing gender pay gaps in the workplace.

"Pay equity audits are a good start. After an audit is done, organisations are better able to identify where gender pay inequities exist can take steps to address them."

Minister for Community Services and Housing and Minister for Women
The Honourable Karen Struthers
03/09/2010

Permanent Link: Remember equal pay day on September 4
Publish Date: 03 Sep 10