Helping Small Businesses Close The Gender Pay Gap
The Allan Labor Government has marked International Women’s Day with the release of a new toolkit to help small businesses close the gender pay gap.
The Pay Equality Toolkit, developed by the Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission with funding from the Labor Government, will support small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to achieve pay equality in their workplace.
The toolkit gives business owners and leaders the resources they need to take action on the gender pay gap, including a Pay Equality Compass to help assess the strengths and opportunities for businesses, guides and templates for creating an equal pay policy.
The toolkit also provides a model for handling pay complaints and conducting a gender pay audit, and other practical tools for SMEs to meet their legal obligations, improve staff satisfaction and become an employer of choice.
The Equal pay matters: Achieving gender pay equality in report noted that smaller organisations have a limited understanding about the concept of equal pay and how it applies to them – that’s why developing this toolkit was so important.
As part of the Victorian Budget 2023/24, the Labor Government invested $1 million to promote gender pay equity workplace initiatives and the functions of the Equal Workplaces Advisory Council.