Closing the Gender Wage Gap Through Better Recruitment Practices

By Arshia Jain, Freya Phillips National Scholar, CSW, 2020

Arshia Jain is Global Voices’ first Freya Phillips National Scholar. Her policy paper focuses on Closing the Gender Wage Gap Through Better Recruitment Practices.

Executive Summary

Despite pay parity being stipulated as a human right in both international and domestic law, Australia continues to experience a national wage gap of 14.2% (WGEA, 2021). While there are various factors that contribute to this pay disparity, approximately 39% of this wage gap is attributed to sex discrimination (KPMG, 2017). The effects of pay disparity compound over a woman's lifetime resulting in an estimated loss of $1.5 million in prospective earnings (ACTU, 2016).

This policy paper addresses the need for better recruitment practices that reduce the opportunity for unconscious bias and discrimination to close the gender wage gap. It recommends that employers are prohibited from asking candidates about previous salary history during any stage of the recruitment process. The paper also recommends mandatory salary ranges for all job advertisements, which would encourage greater pay transparency, reducing the need for salary negotiations as well encouraging women to make higher initial bids.

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