RAISING SALARY ISSUE

Pay rise equality is a promising first step, writes Melanie Burgess

THE gender pay gap is often blamed on timid women lacking the confidence to ask for what they are worth, but exclusive research from Canstar is busting this myth.

Although there may have been a time when women were more likely to shy away from conversations about pay, a survey of more than 1000 Australians finds about a quarter of both men (26 per cent) and women (24 per cent) asked for a pay rise last year.

Women were actually more likely to receive a raise, with 71 per cent getting the tick of approval compared to 61 per cent of men.

Canstar group executive for people and operations Lynne Cawley says the perception that females are less likely to ask for a pay rise does not really stack up.

“It’s great to see that both men and women are equally going after pay rises,” she says. “Nowadays gender doesn’t seem to be part of the equation when it comes to who is negotiating a pay rise.

“Negotiations are focused on technical skills and importantly a growing number of soft skills that employees are bringing to the negotiating table.”

The Canstar survey does reveal, however, that women typically ask for a smaller raise than men do.

Of those who put their hand up, 74 per cent of women asked for a 5 per cent increase or less, compared to 68 per cent of men. Despite this, women were more likely to be successful at the higher end.

The sexes were equally likely to request more than a 10 per cent pay bump (6 per cent of men, 7 per cent of women) yet just 1 per cent of men were offered this much compared to 6 per cent of women.

Workplace Gender Equality Agency director Libby Lyons says even if the issue of pay rises is removed from the equation, there are many other factors contributing to pay inequality between genders.

“(It’s a combination of) discrimination and bias, women and men working in different industries and jobs, female-dominated industries attracting lower wages than male-dominated industries, the disproportionate burden of unpaid domestic work, the lack of flexibility to accommodate for caring responsibilities and lack of parental leave for men,” she says.

“It’s a complex issue and there is no single solution, you have got to tackle all of those things.”

One approach, however, is to increase transparency around salaries.

Management consulting firm Korn Ferry predicts this will be a global trend in 2020 and senior principal Juliet Warne says it may help address gender pay gaps.

“Transparency is at the heart of building equitable HR systems,” she says.

“Turning awareness into action requires organisations to address what we call structural inclusion (which) is about putting equitable and transparent systems and processes in place that prevent unconscious bias from occurring.”