Step 4: Consider the gender equality and the gender pay equity principles, and intersectionality
This step includes required and recommended actions.
You must consider:
- the gender equality principles (as required under the Gender Equality Act 2020)
- the gender pay equity principles (as required under the Gender Equality Regulations 2020).
You must also take intersectionality into account, where practicable.
This step provides guidance on:
- 4.1 Consider the gender equality principles (required)
- 4.2 Consider the gender pay equity principles (required)
- 4.3 Consider intersectional gender equality (required)
This section also includes a box that provides advice for completing the GEAP template.
4.1 Consider the gender equality principles (required)
The gender equality principles
- All Victorians should live in a safe and equal society, have access to equal power, resources and opportunities and be treated with dignity, respect, and fairness.
- Gender equality benefits all Victorians regardless of gender.
- Gender equality is a human right and precondition to social justice.
- Gender equality brings significant economic, social and health benefits to Victoria.
- Gender equality is a precondition for the prevention of family violence and other forms of violence against women and girls.
- Advancing gender equality is a shared responsibility across the Victorian community.
- All human beings, regardless of gender, should be free to develop their abilities, pursue their professional careers and make choices about their lives without being limited by gender stereotypes, gender roles or prejudices.
- Gender inequality may be compounded by other forms of disadvantage or discrimination based on Aboriginality, age, disability, ethnicity, gender identity, race, religion, sexual orientation, and other attributes.
- Women have historically experienced discrimination and disadvantage based on sex and gender.
- Special measures may be necessary to achieve gender equality.
You must explain how you have taken the gender equality principles into account in your GEAP.
Simply listing the principles and stating that you have taken them into account is not enough.
Some ways you can demonstrate you have considered the gender equality principles include:
- Building the case for change – use the principles to explain why gender equality matters your organisation, the sector and the community. Show how they relate to your workplace. Provide evidence
- Defining your GEAP’s vision and objectives – use the principles to put forward your GEAP’s vision and goals. Draw on the principles for language or inspiration
- use the principles to start discussions during consultations – ask staff what the principles mean to them. Use the principles to guide talks about audit data, issues or strategies
- use the principles to choose and prioritise strategies – they can inform your decision making
- engage your leadership team via the principles – educate leaders on gender equality
- develop a monitoring and evaluation framework – measure progress against your strategies and measures. Use the principles as goals
- collaborate with similar organisations – work with other organisations that share these principles to deliver initiatives.
4.2 Consider the gender pay equity principles (required)
The gender pay equity principles, from the Gender Equality Regulations 2020, are:
a) equal pay for work of equal or comparable value, which refers to work valued as equal or comparable in terms of skill, effort, responsibility and working conditions, including different types of work;
b) employment and pay practices are free from bias and discrimination, including the effects of unconscious bias and assumptions based on gender;
c) employment and pay practices, pay rates and systems are transparent and information about these matters is readily accessible and understandable;
d) employment and pay practices recognise and account for different patterns of labour force participation by employees who undertake unpaid or caring work;
e) interventions and solutions are collectively developed and agreed to, sustainable and enduring;
f) employees, unions and employers work collaboratively to achieve mutually agreed outcomes.
For the Act, pay means remuneration. It includes but is not limited to, salary, bonuses, overtime, allowances, and superannuation.
You must consider the gender pay equity principles in your GEAP.
This is a new requirement under the Gender Equality Regulations 2020.
You must explain how you have taken the gender pay equity principles into account. Again, simply listing the principles and stating that you have taken them into account is not enough.
To learn more about the gender pay gap, refer to KPMG’s She’s Price(d)less 2022 report. This report looks at what drives the gender pay gap. It explains why the pay gap exists. It sets out the priorities for fixing it.
Some ways you can demonstrate how you have considered the principles include the following:
Analysing your audit data
- Look at pay differences between employees. Break these down by gender. Consider intersectionality (if you have this data).
- Compare the pay of people of different genders at the same level.
- Analyse gender and demographic trends related to alternative working arrangements. This includes unpaid and caring work.
- Examine how your organisation responds to requests for different part-time and flexible work arrangements at senior levels.
Planning your consultation process
- Share gender pay gap data with your employees. Consider intersectionality (if you have this data).
- During consultation, discuss:
- recruitment, promotion and training processes
- pay practices like base salaries, salary packages, bonuses and loadings
- how these practices affect different groups
- ways to make these processes fairer.
- Describe how your consultation collectively designed gender pay equity solutions (principle E).
- Describe how you used the principles in consultation to support collaboration between employees, unions, and your organisation (principle F).
Considering your organisational values
- Discuss how the gender pay equity principles align with your organisational values. These might include transparency, collaboration, and freedom from bias and discrimination.
- Refer to any gender pay equity principles in your enterprise agreements.
Develop strategies on gender pay equity
- Use the principles, audit findings and consultations to inform your strategies. You can do this across multiple relevant indicators. These include flexible work, leave, recruitment, promotion and development.
- For example, more women than men work part-time. This can limit their access to senior roles, which are usually full-time. This can widen the gender pay gap. Policies that support part-time/job-share at senior levels can improve gender pay equity.
- Address as many principles in your strategies as possible.
- Review your pay and promotion policies. See whether they reflect the gender pay equity principles.
Refer to the strategies on the gender pay equity principles for more information on developing strategies using the gender pay equity principles.
Tip: The Workplace Gender Equality Agency has a practical Guide to gender pay equity. You can use this to improve pay equity between women and men in your organisation.
Applying intersectionality to the gender pay equity principles
Some groups of employees may face additional barriers to gender pay equity.
Consider how multiple forms of disadvantage can affect the gender pay equity principles. This means applying an intersectional lens.
For instance, the Commissioner’s Intersectionality at work report found that:
- pay gaps were largest between First Nations women when compared with non-Indigenous men, at 21% across all industries. This is compared with the pay gap between:
- First Nations women and First Nations men at 11%
- First Nations women and non-Indigenous women at 7%.
- women with disabilities experienced large pay gaps compared with men without disabilities, at 19% across all industries. This is compared with the pay gap between:
- women with disabilities and men with disabilities at 10%
- women with disabilities and women without disabilities at 7%
- pay gaps between culturally and racially marginalised (CARM) women and non-CARM men was 19%. This is compared with the pay gap between:
- CARM women and CARM men at 10%
- CARM women and non-CARM women at 7%
- pay gaps between trans, non-binary and other gender diverse employees and cisgender men were 18%. This is compared with the pay gap between
- trans, non-binary or gender diverse people and cisgender women at 3%
- cisgender women and cisgender men at 15%.
To bring an intersectional lens to the pay gap, you could:
- analyse pay gap data by demographic attributes
- consider how different employment types affect pay and promotion. This includes part-time and job share arrangements
- examine data on barriers to promotion for different employee groups. Consider how this will affect their pay
- consult employees with diverse experiences.
4.3 Consider intersectional gender equality (required)The Act requires duty holders to consider intersectional gender inequality.
Intersectional gender inequality is the disadvantage or discrimination on characteristics that a person may experience on the basis of any of the following in addition to gender
- Aboriginality
- age
- disability
- ethnicity
- gender identity
- race
- religion
- sexual orientation.
Refer to Applying intersectionality to the gender pay equity principles in step 4.2 for examples of using intersectional analysis.
You must take intersectionality into account when preparing your GEAP.3
Explain how you have considered it in section 9 of the template.
If possible, collect demographic attribute data about your workforce. Use this data to examine the intersections between gender inequality and other forms of discrimination or disadvantage. Consider this in relation to the workplace gender equality indicators(opens in a new window).4
An intersectional approach helps you develop better policies and processes for all employees.
Refer to our Applying intersectionality guide(opens in a new window) to learn how to apply an intersectional approach in your GEAP.
Completing the GEAP template
In section 7, summarise how you have considered the gender equality principles.
The gender equality principles frame why gender equality is important. This includes human rights, social, economic and health and safety domains.
They guide duty holders in their responsibilities to improve gender equality.
You can demonstrate you have considered the principles in relation to:
- building the case for change and/or vision
- guiding consultation discussions
- informing decision-making during strategy development
- engaging the leadership team
- any other aspect.
In section 8, summarise how you have considered the gender pay equity principles.
The gender pay equity principles guide what you will do to achieve gender pay equity.
They can address disadvantage, stigma, stereotypes and prejudice. They can help create the structural change you need to accommodate different genders.
They also aim to improve economic and social participation for all genders.
You can demonstrate you have considered the principles in relation to:
- guiding policy making/changes related to gender pay equity
- analysing your audit data
- informing your consultation process
- your organisational values
- developing strategies.
Describe how you have considered the principles.
Simply listing the principles and stating that you have taken them into account is not enough to demonstrate compliance.
References and Footnotes
3. Where possible, consider intersectionality when you undertake your gender impact assessments. Provide data about attributes beyond gender in your audit if possible.
4. Note that methods for applying an intersectional lens to quantitative data are still being developed (Ben 2018). As such, there is no single, correct way to undertake an intersectional analysis of your workforce and employee experience data (source: intersectional guide).
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