00:01It's not just a pay parity or pay equity issue. That is actually an equal pay issue,
00:08which we should, as a nation, be far beyond. Everybody should earn the same amount for
00:16earning, for doing the same job. Interestingly, the gap for professional and managerial positions
00:24was 17.9, which was one of the highest. Clearly, a degree doesn't protect you. Education is something
00:33that our people have done an incredible job of over the last couple of decades, entering
00:39the tertiary system, for example, that was previously denied in terms of access. Having examined all
00:47of the usual things that explain a pay parity gap, we can only put it down to systemic race
00:54racism, because, and especially in the regulated industries, where there are awards and other
01:01industrial instruments in place, it's smaller. So, when it's up to the discretion of the employer
01:11or manager or a REM process or an HR process, the gap is wider, which is of real concern.
01:19If we look at the total salaries earned through the Indigenous sector in the report, it's about
01:23$14.4 billion. That's 16 per cent in hourly rate and 18 per cent in actual wages. Corresponds
01:31to about $15,000 in the average wage less than an Indigenous person earns each year. That then
01:39compounds right through their life and their family's life. So, you have less money to save
01:45to buy a house, you have less money to put into superannuation and, as a consequence, you have
01:52less money to spend on education for your family and less intergenerational wealth to be able to
01:59transfer to the next generations that come. So, it compounds over a period of time, very similar to, you know,
02:07compare the pair in superannuation. If you think about $15,000 a year through all of your working
02:13life, that translates into potentially hundreds of thousands of dollars less in superannuation
02:19that you're able to retire with.
02:21For many years, as you'd be aware, there's been a pay equity measurement tool in this country. So, conducted by
02:30the
02:30Workplace Gender Equity Agency. We then did that for Indigenous women. So, within that tool, and that's 21 per cent.
02:39But what was really frightening was that, as part of this process, we looked at it for Indigenous men,
02:48the mainstream men, and we had the same outcomes. In terms of women, we can't explain that either, because, again,
03:01in the regulated sectors like education and health and the community sector, the gap is less. So, we can only
03:09assume that discretion means that Indigenous women are put on a lower pay point
03:18than their non-Indigenous colleagues. Now, we've also done some research over the last year as part of the Federal
03:25Government's Working for Women strategy. We did the Indigenous research in the Indigenous component of the research for that, and
03:33that was certainly borne out in terms of access to promotions, access to flexible work, all of those things, all
03:42of the work things.
03:43This is perfectly fixable. So, as Noreen sort of outlined, if you're in a work environment where it's more award
03:52-driven, there's reasonable pay parity. If you're in more professional and managerial occupations, there's a greater disparity, which is driven
04:02by a potentially unconscious bias.
04:05And what we are proposing is three things. So, the first thing is a positive duty on employers around complying
04:16and following with the Racial Discrimination Act. So, having policies and procedures that are upheld in the workplace and to
04:24positively address unconscious bias.
04:28The second piece is very similar to workplace gender equity agency type measures on equality where we want employers to
04:39actually measure and report on Indigenous employment data and make that very transparent.
04:48And the third one is to value Indigenous cultural skills in wage setting and ensure that Indigenous workers, hardworking Indigenous
04:58Australians, are rightly paid for what they bring to the workplace.
