A REPORT showing women are paid up to 45 per cent less than men in some managerial roles comes as no surprise to Latrobe Valley Women in Business.
Conducted by Workplace Gender Equality Australia and based on more than 11,000 employers, the new report shows on average in managerial roles, women are paid 24 per cent less than men and in administrative and support services roles, the pay gap was 44.7 per cent.
Latrobe Valley Women in Business founder and secretary Michelle Anderson said the results were not surprising and she did not expect its findings to change any time soon.
“It’s going to take probably a lot longer than my lifetime to make any significant changes,” Ms Anderson said.
“There’s sort of ad hoc changes here and there, some companies say they have a policy around the number of women they have in high manager roles but they’re certainly not paid the equivalent to their male counterparts.
“It’s a debate that’s been going on for quite a long time.”
The report said research showed women were likely to be less assertive when negotiating pay rates, worried they would be viewed differently than men who exhibited assertive behaviour.
“Men probably are more assertive, there still are a number of really assertive women and a lot of them are probably the ones who speak out about not getting paid as much as women,” Ms Anderson said.
“They shouldn’t have to be assertive, it should be a given, if you’ve got a position description associated with that job, then the pay scale should be set.”
