• Glossary & Definitions
• 1 Introduction
• 2 Context of the review
• 3 Existing framework for equal employment opportunity for women in Australia
• 4 Barriers to achieving equality for women in the workplace
• 5 Effectiveness of existing equal opportunity for women framework
• 6 What works to achieve equal employment opportunity for women
• 7 Options to improve equal employment opportunity framework
• 8 Conclusion
• A Project methodology

Review of the Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Act 1999 Consultation Report

Full Description

Chart 1: Gender pay gap based on the average weekly ordinary time earnings of full-time adults, February 1984 to February 2009.

The chart shows the gender pay gap based on the average weekly ordinary time earnings of full-time adults from February 1984 to February 2009.

In February 1984, the gender pay gap was 19.4 per cent. It decreased to 17.4 per cent in February 1989. It fell again in February 1994 to 15.8 per cent and again in February 1999 to 15.5 per cent. The gender pay gap remained at 15.5 per cent in 2004 and increased to 17.2 per cent in February 2009.

Figure 1 - Project Approach

Figure one depicts the six stages of the project and their associated timeframes. Stage one (project initiation) commenced 15 June 2009 through to 20 June 2009. Stage two comprises research and issues paper development and was conducted from 20 June 2009 to 29 August 2009. Stage three of the project is the public submissions and surveys process and took place from 29 August 2009 until 30 October 2009. Stage four is the final analysis phase, which ran from 24 October 2009 to 20 November 2009. The final stage of the project is the reporting stage which commenced on 4 November 2009, and finished on 30 November 2009.

According to this figure, project reference group meetings were held on 24 August 2009 and 4 November 2009.

Figure 3 - Public Submissions by source category

Figure 3 shows the breakdown of EOWW Act reporting organisation survey respondents by industry. The greatest number of responses came from manufacturing (19 per cent), education and training (16 per cent), health care and social assistance (10 per cent), and professional, scientific and technical services (9 per cent). Other industry results include: financial and insurance services (6 per cent); agriculture, forestry and fishing (5 per cent); accommodation and food services (5 per cent); information, media and telecommunications (4 per cent); other services (4 per cent); administration and support services (4 per cent); mining (3 per cent); retail (3 per cent); transport, postal and warehousing (3 per cent); construction (3 per cent); arts and recreational services (2 per cent); electricity, gas, water and waste services (1 per cent); rental hire (1 per cent); blank (1 per cent); wholesale trade (1 per cent); and public administration and safety (0 per cent).

Figure 4 - reporting organisation survey respondents by industry

Figure 4 shows the percentages of EOWW Act reporting organisation survey respondents by organisation size. The majority of respondents came from organisations with between 100 and 499 employees (56 per cent), followed by organisations with over 500 employees (39 per cent). Four per cent of respondents came from organisations with 20-99 employees, and one per cent was unknown. There were no surveys received from respondents from organisations with fewer than 20 employees.

Figure 5 - reporting organisation survey respondent by organisation size

Figure 5 shows the percentages of reporting organisation survey respondents by compliance status. The greatest number of responses came from organisations with compliant-moderate status (62 per cent), followed by compliant-high level status (13 per cent), waived for two years (12 per cent), compliant-marginal (11 per cent), waived for one year (1 per cent), and blank (1 per cent).

Figure 6 - Reporting organisation survey respondent by compliance status

This figure shows that most of the respondents to the reporting organisation survey were moderately compliant to the EOWW Act (62 per cent). The next largest group of respondents were highly compliant organisations (13 per cent), followed by organisations whose obligation to report has been waived for two years (12 per cent), marginally compliant organisations (11 per cent) and organisations whose obligation to report has been waived for one year (one per cent).

Figure 7 - Employee survey respondents by gender

This graph shows that 95 per cent of respondents to the employee survey were female, while 5 per cent were male.

Figure 8 - Employee survey respondents by industry

More than half of employee survey respondents were from the Education
(28 per cent) and Health and Community Services sectors (23 per cent). Other rest of respondents came from the following sectors: government administration and defence (14 per cent), finance and insurance (7 per cent), personal and other services (6 per cent), communication services (4 per cent), property and business services (4 per cent). Two per cent of respondents were from the cultural and recreational services sector; electricity, gas and water supply sector; construction sector and retail trade sector. The rest of respondents were from the manufacturing sector; transport and storage sector; and mining sector.

Figure 9 - Employee survey respondents by organisation size

Most employee survey respondents (51 per cent) were from organisations with 500 or more employees. Twenty per cent were from organisations with 100 to 499 employees, 13 per cent were from organisations with 20 to 99 employees and 15 per cent were from organisations with less than 20 employees.

Figure 10 - Employee survey respondents by existence of dependents

Most employee survey respondents had no dependents (54 per cent), while 46 per cent of respondents did have dependents.

• Back to :A Project methodology

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