Addressing gender segregated industries and occupations

164. Australia's labour market is segregated by industry and occupation. Working for Women outlines Australia's vision to achieve less gender-segregated industries and occupations, improve gender attitudes and stereotypes about 'men's and women's work' and a higher valuing of feminised industries.
165. Further initiatives to increase representation of women in male dominated industries include:
     • The Australian Skills Guarantee (commenced July 2024), introduces national targets to increase the proportion of women working on major projects in ICT and construction and reduces gender segregation in apprenticeship schemes. The 2024-2028 National Skills Agreement, will strengthen the vocational education and training sector, improve women's economic participation, reduce industry and occupation gender segregation and improve the gender pay gap.
     • The Government developed an Australian Apprenticeship service delivery model with support for women in male dominated trades.
     • The Government announced Parent Pathways (2024) a voluntary pre‑employment service supporting eligible parents of young children. Parents and non-government stakeholders are contributors.
       1. Parents in non-remote areas who are not in paid employment, have a child aged under 6 years, and are receiving certain payments, will be eligible. First Nations parents will not need to be receiving payments to be eligible. 

Implement the principle of equal pay for work of equal value

166. Employers must pay all employees equally for work of equal or comparable value. Australia improved transparency and reporting on gender pay gaps including amendments to the WGE Act.
167. Workplace relations system reforms include:
     • making gender equality an object of the Fair Work Act;
     • guiding how the Fair Work Commission considers equal remuneration and work value cases;
     • the Fair Work Commission must consider gender equality, when setting modern awards conditions and minimum wages;
     • establish Expert Panels for pay equity in the Care and Community Sector;
     • expand bargaining systems to low-paid, female-dominated sectors;
     • prohibiting pay secrecy clauses in employment contracts.
168. The Secure Jobs, Better Pay Act amendments to the Fair Work Act instructs the Fair Work Commission to consider gender as a criteria to delivering pay increases. Reform examples include:
     • in 2022-23, the Fair Work Commission increased the national minimum wage by 8.6% to benefit low paid workers (more likely to be women);
     • increased the award wage for more than 250,000 aged sector employees, historically undervalued because of assumptions based on gender, by up to 28.5%.

Implementation of 2017 Senate Inquiry into gender segregation in the workplace

169. The Government response to the Senate Inquiry into gender segregation in the workplace, was published in July 2018. The Government committed to conduct the Time Use Survey - data collection (ongoing from 2024) which records activities Australians take part in each day, including time spent on unpaid work (caring for children and older people, doing housework).

Australian Human Rights Commission – 'Supporting working parents: pregnancy and return to work national review'

170. Australia has undergone reforms since the 2014 AHRC report, which examined discrimination in the workplace after pregnancy, including women's experiences while on parental leave and on returning to work. Employer obligations and employee rights are published by various Australian departments and agencies including the Fair Work Ombudsman,³³ AHRC,³⁴ Department of Employment and Workplace Relations, ³⁵ and WGEA.³⁶

Code of Practice

171. Australia does not have a code of practice on the legal obligations of employers regarding pregnant employees/employees with family obligations. Australia has a legislative framework outlining employer obligations and employee rights, including the Sex Discrimination Act, Fair Work Act and Paid Parental Leave Act 2010 (Cth).

Gender analysis of Australia's pension fund

172. Australia's retirement income system aims to protect older Australians in retirement from formal employment and includes compulsory superannuation employer contributions, additional voluntary employee contributions, and the Government Age Pension safety net. The Age Pension is a social support payment supporting basic living standards of older Australians who need it. 55.5% of Age Pension recipients are women.
173. Working for Women outlines a commitment to implement actions to reduce the retirement income gender pay gap, develop superannuation-system supports for people to catch up after time out of the workforce, and implement a social security system safety net.
174. For births or adoptions, from 1 July 2025, the Government will pay superannuation on its PPL scheme signalling that time out of paid work to care for children is part of working life for both parents; normalising parental leave as a workplace entitlement; and reducing impact of parental leave on retirement incomes.
175. New policy proposals concerning Australia's retirement income system must undergo gender analysis.
176. Gender gaps in superannuation balances are largely a result of lower lifetime earnings, and greater part time work, rather than superannuation system settings. Beyond superannuation balances, the Age Pension plays an important role in narrowing the gender income gap in retirement relative to working life.

Respect@Work Report

177. The Government provided $367 million to implement all recommendations of the Respect@Work Report.
178. Reform requiring federal legislative change has been implemented through amendments including:
     • Sex Discrimination Act: broadened the scope of the Act to apply to all forms of workers.
     • The Australian Human Rights Commission Act 1986 (Cth) was amended to provide the AHRC with new powers to inquire into, and report on, systematic unlawful discrimination, and new compliance and enforcement functions to complement the positive duty.
     • The Fair Work Act and Fair Work Regulations 2009 (Cth) were amended to prohibit sexual harassment in connection with work, introduce powers for the Fair Work Commission to deal with workplace disputes concerning sexual harassment including issuing a 'stop sexual harassment order', and clarifying that sexual harassment can be conduct amounting to dismissal.
     • WGE Act has been amended to require federal public sector organisations, in addition to non-public sector employers, to report on gender equality indicators annually and enhance information sharing.
     • The Australian Human Rights Commission Amendment (Costs Protection) Act 2024 will prevent a court from ordering an applicant to pay a respondents cost in discrimination cases in Federal Court, except in certain limited circumstances.
179. Non-legislative measures taken by the Government in response to recommendations from the Respect@Work Report include:
     • developing training and education materials for critical groups on workplace sexual harassment;
     • funding a Sexual Harassment Research Program to support a national evidence base to inform policy and practice;
     • developing Guidelines on the use of confidentiality clauses in settlement agreements in sexual harassment matters;
     • commissioning the Australian National University to undertake research on costs and damages in sexual harassment litigation to inform a review into an appropriate costs protection model for discrimination matters;
     • providing funding for working women's centres, community legal centres and legal aid commissions and 1800RESPECT to support individuals who experience sexual harassment;
     • ratifying the International Labour Organization's Violence and Harassment Convention No.190;
     • conducting and releasing the results of the fifth national survey on sexual harassment;
     • establishing the Respect@Work Council to provide advice on implementation of the recommendations;
     • developing a Good Practice Indicators Framework for preventing and responding to workplace sexual harassment;
     • launching the Respect@Work website to deliver information and resources on workplace sexual harassment, including guidance on external pathways to address workplace sexual harassment.