Earlier this week, the Workplace Gender Equity Agency (WGEA) released its Gender Pay Gap Analysis Report (2022 – 2023) which aims to provide a picture of the state of gender equality in organisations across Australia by reporting on the difference in average earnings between men and women. The release of this report has attracted media attention, and you may be aware that MLC was referenced in some reports published today.
Today’s reports suggest that MLC, along with several other girls’ schools in WA are not paying our male and female employees equal pay for equal work. There is further suggestion that more men than women are appointed in senior and administration roles at these schools.
Here at MLC, that is simply not the case.
MLC has Enterprise Agreements in place which ensures equal pay for equal roles. 85% of our workforce is female and of the seven executive roles that sit outside of the scope of enterprise agreements, six are held by women.
Amongst our Middle, Senior and Executive Leadership teams at MLC, women are strongly represented and in higher proportions than males. However, we are a large employer and we do have a significant part-time workforce, the majority of whom are women. Within this group, we have a combination of roles offered on a part-time basis and we also have members of staff who have requested and been granted flexible arrangements. We recognise that the over-representation of women in part-time work will have had a demonstrable effect on this report. We are committed to providing part-time opportunities for our staff where possible and feasible.
In 2021 – 2022, MLC reported a median base salary gap of 1.9%. In 2022 – 2023 this gap has been reported as 33.1%. We are seeking to understand the disparity in the 2022 – 2023 data given little has changed as far as the workforce composition at the College is concerned. We have reached out to WGEA to seek further clarification.
We are a school that is committed to the empowerment of girls and women and dedicated to closing the gap in gender inequality. We will continue to review data such as that contained in the WGEA report along with our practices as we pursue this commitment.