Show me the money!

Time to raise that bar ladies?

From a recent Harvard Daily Stat: asking for an absurdly high salary when negotiating a pay rise can work in your favour.
A 2011 study conducted by Thorsteinson from the University of Idaho, USA, published in the Journal of Applied Social Psychology, found that job candidates requesting ridiculously high salaries received 9% higher wage offers than those who were... more sensible. Thorsteinson suggests that the initial offer - even an implausible one - serves as an "anchor" that affects the eventual outcome.

Full details of the study can be found here

Tools for Tackling Pay Inequity; New "On the Horizon"...

EOWA tackling Pay Inequity in Australia

source

As discussed in last week’s post on the Pay Equity breakfast seminar held at the MBC featuring Mairi Steele and Philippa Hall from EOWA, EOWA are undertaking a number of projects to increase understanding of and provide solutions to the pay equity problem. Thanks to Margaret for sending this information through to us.

1. Development of a standard on gender-inclusive job evaluation
Working with Standards Australia, with stakeholders and engaging public consultation, EOWA plan to develop a standard on gender-inclusive job evaluation, building on the New Zealand Standard on Gender-inclusive Job Evaluation (P8007/2006).

The standard will provide an analysis of gender bias in job evaluation, and guidelines and checklists for minimising it. It will cover job description and analysis, job evaluation, and review and monitoring. The standard will enable users to check that job evaluation is conducted according to best practice in gender equity, and is for use with any job evaluation system.

2. An online course on pay equity
A one-hour interactive course, aimed at human resource practitioners and other interested people, will build understanding of pay equity issues and remedies. It covers legislation, statistics, pay equity histories and case studies, and checklists and tools for use with components of remuneration and techniques of valuing work and setting remuneration.

These projects will certainly provide managers and practitioners with some practical tools and frameworks for raising awareness of, identifying and addressing pay equity issues within their organizations. EOWA are keen to engage with managers, human resources practitioners and other interested people about these projects. See the EOWA website for contact details.

New On the Horizon

A new event for your calendar… thanks to Judith for this information.

On 7th and 8th February 2011, Auckland University of Technology (AUT) in Auckland, New Zealand will host the 4th Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Conference.

The theme of the conference is “Equality, Diversity and Inclusion: Views from the Edge”. The conference is seeking diverse views and challenging conversations around this theme and submissions that bring the margins to the centre or views from the edges of our knowledge and understanding of EDI are encouraged.

Submissions are invited from experienced, emerging researchers and practitioners and doctoral students are especially encouraged to present their work. There will be academic and doctoral sessions as well as presentations relevant to practitioners and policy makers.

For further information and key dates please visit the EDI Conference website

Pay Equity with Your Porridge

Pay Equity with Your Porridge Breakfast Seminar: Mairi Steele and Philippa Hall, EOWA.

Mairi Steele and Philippa Hall were guests of the MBC for a well attended breakfast seminar on July 2nd.

Recent research undertaken by Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Agency (EOWA) has highlighted the misconceptions about pay equity which exist in the business community and Mairi’s focus was on how to overcome that. While the research showed that overwhelmingly there was awareness that men earn more than women (94% of business), only 37% of EOWA contacts believed that a gender pay gap existed in their own organisation. The research showed further, that while there was overwhelming support for something to be done, under 40% of reporting organisations conduct any gender pay equity analysis. The data suggest that only 10% of reporting organisations have an action plan to improve gender pay equity.

Mairi noted that for many businesses the argument is that gender pay inequity is ‘not our problem’; it is the result of the award system or of the job evaluation process. Mairi highlighted the steps that EOWA is taking to respond to these perceptions. These include changing the Employer of Choice criteria so that these now include a requirement for a detailed analysis of workforce remuneration and gender equity pay issues. Other highlighted actions include promoting Equal Pay Day - which will be on 4 September 2010, provision by EOWA of an on-line pay equity course, and developing standards for gender inclusive job evaluation.

Philippa, who is the former Director, Pay and Employment Equity, NZ Dept of Labour and now working with EOWA, shared her views on more inclusive approaches to evaluating work and enabling preparedness to implement the remuneration implications. This included the development of resources for business which are accessible on-line.

There was a lively discussion around the issues of causation of and remedies for gender pay inequity. This resulted in some interesting observations (including questions of unionisation and the ‘reluctance’ of women to push the issue) from the diverse audience, which included HR practitioners and union officials.

Aspiring Political Leaders, Test Case for Equal Pay

Political Leadership – what does an aspiring Labour Party leader look like?

In the UK, the ‘race’ for leader of the Labour party has begun. One woman Diane Abbott is standing for the leadership. She is the first black person to contest the leadership of the party. Abbott is contesting the leadership with four other candidates, all of them male and all of them white. It was one of the contenders David Miliband who ‘helped’ Abbott get the required level of support to run for leader. Barbara Ellen in an article in The Observer (13 June) stated that his actions, whilst helping Abbott secure the votes she needed, were "patronising in the extreme". If actions speak louder than words, then what this is saying is loud and clear: “No skin off my nose: she won’t win.” Ellen goes on to make the point that Abbott is being positioned (by some at least) as the candidate who can make others feel better about the leadership contest – with Abbott they can tick the gender and ethnic diversity boxes – but as Ellen states "since when were black or female or in Abbott's case black and female, politicians there to make the white guys look good?" A great question!

Harriet Harman, the stand-in Labour party leader, has stated that Diane Abbott will give her rivals ‘a good run for their money.’ Harman nominated Abbott to prevent the leadership race being an all male affair. Let’s hope she is right and that the contest for leader focuses on who will be the most effective leader, including serious consideration of leaders who are female and black.

Pay Equity Test Case
The Australian Services Union (ASU) launched an equal pay test case with Fair Work Australia under the new Federal Fair Work Act in March this year. The ASU's case is focused on 250,000 mainly female community sector workers, in particular those who work in the care and community industries. They state that ‘the case sets out to prove that Community Workers wages have been set and kept so low because the work of the sector has been traditionally considered as Women’s Work. The test case is supported by the Equal Pay Alliance – a group of over 150 representatives from business, unions and government.

In a press release coinciding with the lodging of the claim the Australian Sex Discrimination Commissioner, Elizabeth Broderick stated that “A positive outcome in this test case will be a triumph for workers in this area, and will have important future implications. Australia is not alone in its challenge to close the gender gap in pay. We need to use all the tools available to us to ensure that this occurs. I warmly welcome the filing of the ASU case today.”

Hearings and/or inspections are expected to occur in October this year. I’d like to feel optimistic about this case as I believe that so many jobs in the caring sectors are undervalued and under rewarded. There is a real chance to do something about closing the gender pay gap. I wonder if they will be ‘brave’ enough to do it? We’ll keep an eye on the progress of this case!

On the Horizon
We have added a new section to our blog... "On the Horizon" which will provide links to upcoming events, seminars and conferences in the women in leadership space. Take a look on the right hand column of the blog and you will find it.

There are a number of events coming up in the next few months that might be of interest to you:
- “Getting Women off the Bench – A Gender Equality Blueprint for 2010” - National Press Club Address (Australia) by Elizabeth Broderick, Sex Discrimination Commissioner on Wednesday 23 June 11.45am-1.30pm (EST). At the address Commissioner Broderick will launch her 2010 Gender Equality Blue Print for Australia. The event will be fully televised. Click this link for more details.

- The Maureen Bickley Centre for Women in Leadership in association with the Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Agency (EOWA), are hosting a Breakfast Seminar on 2 July 2010 at 7:15am for 7:30am start on Gender Pay Equity with Mairi Steele, Acting Director, EOWA.
Mairi will discuss the research which suggests that HR specialists need a better understanding of pay equity issues and how to address them. She will talk about how to raise awareness of the problem and drive change in this critical area. For further information contact Lucy Cowcher-Guthrie at the MBC.

- The International Conference for Women Engineers and Scientists (ICWES) will be held in Adelaide, Australia from July 19-22, 2011. This global conference is run every three years and is a forum for the exchange of information and ideas for women in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM).

The 2011 conference theme is Leadership, Innovation, Sustainability an will explore the following:
* Attracting, developing and retaining women engineers and scientists.
* Outstanding practice models of industry commitment to diversity and equality in the workplace.
* Achievements, innovations and research in the various fields of engineering, science and technology
* New ideas and solutions to contemporary problems including climate change, water, energy and sustainability.

Abstract submissions have opened, closing 1st December 2010. Submissions from both academics and industry practitioners are strongly encouraged. For more information visit www.icwes15.org

No Surprises! The Gender Pay Gap

No surprises!
A recent OECD report showed not unsurprisingly that women in OECD countries earn 18% less than men and only around one-third of managerial positions are held by women. This data won’t surprise too many but it does make you wonder what data is needed before we actually start to see concerted efforts to close the gender pay gap and to increase the number of women in senior decision making roles. It is clear that the data on its own doesn’t create a compelling case for change. The report is available at this link.

Closing the gender pay gap
Another case of sex discrimination – maybe we need more cases like this one to address the gender pay gap!!!

Around 50 female workers at Birmingham City Council in the UK (the UK’s largest local authority) have been told by the Employment Tribunal that their claims of discrimination are valid – but over 4000 more women could be affected by the ruling. The cases relate to bonuses or rather the lack of bonuses paid to the women. Men who were on the same pay grade had earned bonuses up to 160% of their basic pay - the women didn’t get bonuses! It could cost the Council 600 million pounds in back pay. Now that would be money well spent!!!

Some interesting reports this week
Goldman Sachs and JB Were have recently released a report titled Australia’s Hidden Resource: the Economic Case for Increasing Female Participation. The report highlights (again!) that women are an underutilised and undervalued resource in the Australian labour market and are overrepresented in the caring professions and underrepresented in science and technology. The report also comments on the persistence of the gender pay gap across a range of industry sectors. To download the full report, click here.

Our colleague Therese alerted us to the Productivity Commission (2005), “Economic Implications of an Ageing Australia, Research Report”, Canberra which reached similar conclusions. The full report can be downloaded from the Productivity Commission site. Again it’s a case of the data is there (and has been for some time) but change isn’t happening!!! So if the business case doesn’t appear to be winning the hearts and minds of those in senior decision making roles – what will? We are interested in your thoughts of what is needed now to make change happen. Please feel free to leave a comment or drop us a line: mbc@gsb.curtin.edu.au