Gender Pay Gaps – why intersectional analysis is important

In April 2024 and June 2023, I shared some of my examples of gender pay gap analysis taking an intersectional approach. This article is a revision of my previous articles with some new examples and reflections six months after the publication of Gender Pay Gaps in Australia.

Some organisations are already doing intersectional pay analysis, and many more should be doing this, or attempting this. You don’t need a scatter gun approach. And you can also cut the data by Levels to the CEO, Manager categories, Executives, Casuals (and analysis of workforce without casuals), Classification levels (including Enterprise Agreement and graduate levels), Work areas (drilling into work areas and executive portfolios), Position fraction and tenure, (FT, PT, Ongoing, Fixed Term) and position titles.

Even if you don't have fully inclusive data sets, you can still determine trends with the data you have and build on your data collection capability and employee confidence in sharing data with your organisation. The use of qualitative data can also help the interpretation of the data and provide some insights into the employee experience and human impact of pay inequity, including compounded forms of inequity.

Pay equity is connected to everything in the employment lifecycle - from recruitment, promotion and career development to retention, exits, flexible working and superannuation. A poor culture with high rates of sexual harassment and bullying can impact your pay gap. Gender pay gaps also highlight areas where employees may experience economic and employment vulnerability such as job insecurity through occupational segregation, cumulative impacts from career breaks and caring, and compounded forms of inequity - gender, racial, disability, age, etc.

Figure: Employee Life Cycle and GPGs

When the overall organisational mean gender pay gaps are high, they reflect structural and historical issues associate with industrial and occupational segregation. This includes the over-representation of women at the junior classification levels and corresponding over-representation of men in senior, more highly paid roles.

Yes, we know that the gender pay gaps (GPGs) of over 5000 organisations in Australia were published on 27 February 2024.

In fact, GPGs have already been published in 2021 by 300 Victorian Public Sector Entities by The Commission for Gender Equality in the Public Sector. https://insights.genderequalitycommission.vic.gov.au/application-dashboard

And a report that contains intersectional analysis, including disability, cultural identity, is provided here, https://www.genderequalitycommission.vic.gov.au/intersectionality-work with a second report is anticipated using data collected on 30 June 2023.

However, as we know, the work doesn’t end on 27 February 2024. A high figure tells you need to look under the hood. Your competitors and peers have most likely developed a good understanding and path of action to reduce their GPGs.

And if your ship is stuck or has hit the iceberg, or if you are still in shock about your results, then look perhaps look at building a new ship that will steer a new course. Don't get fixated on a single figure. There is much more going on that is impacting your business. Even an overall ?0% gender pay gap, it is not necessarily mean that everything is perfect. It may mask what is happening at departmental level.

In my article, I asked the question whether in six months’ time, will we still see the foot on the accelerator? Will the roar shake the foundations of institutions? Is this the turning point we have waited for? Or will it be the top third of organisations that have begun this work years ago, seize on the opportunity to see their businesses and talent grow. You tell me. It’s six months now. Have we seen a charge of male CEOs step up and write or publicly speak about how they are going to reduce that gender pay gap, are they going to close it in their tenure, or their lifetime?

I wonder if it will be left for the Diversity, Equity & Inclusion or Human Resources Directors and HR partners and professional to do the heavy lifting in collected, cleaning, analysing data and providing insights, strategies and actions. Will it be the payroll and data reporting lead that will do all the heavy lifting? Will it be the advocates for intersectional analysis, calling for change? Will it come? Will it be heard? Will it be acted on? Will there be an increase in accountability, action and resources to do this work effectively? Don’t hold your breath. And don’t wait for someone else. Do what you can in your sphere of influence. ?And we’ll build momentum from there.

When the results were published, the emotionality and irrational defensiveness by some sections of the media, including some very loud men and questioning of the methodology has been staggering. Everyone becomes an expert. The loud voices are probably those who have never done a pay equity calculation before, have not used a calculator and excel spreadsheet, or even live dashboard reporting. Your hope may have faded, and this may have blown over as it hasn’t been picked up anywhere outside our profession with the attention it requires, especially with cost of living pressures. And who is impacted the most? Those on the lowest wages? Those who are teachers, carers, aged care workers, etc, etc. And those are mainly women.

The mention of gender pay gaps, including the call for intersectional pay gaps, and gender pay gaps with cultural diversity, is met with strong resistance (rating 1), the public are more than ready for it (rating 5). ?

The importance of good preparation starts with a robust methodology, including data integrity (accuracy and reliability), thorough analysis and longitudinal information for comparison. Data is not just for nerds. Be curious don’t rely on payroll to prove all your data and analysis needs. Interrogate and question the data. You may need to clean data. You may need to double handle data – external and internal reports. Applying an intersectional lens to the gender pay gap can tell a deeper story.

Perhaps a benchmark graph may look like the one below.

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For anyone who has looked from anywhere from 1,000 to 20,000 lines of data, it's tricky. Looking for patterns or anomalies in a sea of data takes practice. And my drive for data integrity comes from a previous manager very early in my career that fudged the figures.

I have been conducting pay equity analyses (including intersectional analysis) for organisations since 2006 (WGEA and CGEPS) and have learned that understanding and addressing gender pay gap is critical in addressing gender inequity - including economic insecurity, lower superannuation over a lifetime, job segregation, invisible and unpaid work, discrimination, etc,

Here’s your classical type of GPG analysis that you are most familiar with if you have done WGEA compliance reporting. You can already see a number of trends. But what you can’t see clearly is what’s happening with 77.6% of your workforce, those in non-manager categories. I’d like to know that point of crossing from non-manager to manager level, expecting the transition into leadership to be slower for women than men. And now with the reporting of CEO’s, watch for how you may benchmark with historical results, and report with and without CEO internally.

Table. Common GPG analysis by manager category

The example below shows an organisational GPG of 40.8%. It's a small and manageable sample size of 40.

Table. Mean GPG Base Remuneration

When there is gender parity in non-manager levels, the GPS is reduced to 23.0% (addressing job segregation).

Table. GPS with gender parity in non-manger categories

When the non-manager roles are paid higher (equitable or fairer) wages, the GPGs is reduced to 20.9%.

Table. GPGs with gender parity and higher pay at non manager categories

And over time, when we reach closer to gender parity across each classification level, we reduce to GPG to -0.8% (addressing transition into the leadership, talent and career progression), plus other factors such as leave, flexibility, sexual harassment, culture, cultural safety etc.

Table 4. GPGs with closer gender parity and higher pay for non-managers

Figure: Diversity Dimensions

Below is an example I created of the pay gaps between women and men of different cultural heritages. I used the approximate 13.0% mean base remuneration pay gap between women and men in Australia in February 2024. This is now 11.5% as at August 2024.

The other average remuneration figures are not real, but estimates based on reports from the UK and USA figures on GPGs and cultural diversity, showing women from culturally diverse backgrounds earn less than their male employees. This has been constructed in my example below to demonstrate that this kind of analysis can be performed. I created a category of a person's cultural identity that excludes Europe, USA, Canada, New Zealand and Australia called A1 (see table below), understanding that people may have multiple cultural identities.

This analysis can be done with internal data, and your data accuracy will increase when HRIS is able to capture more than one cultural heritage per person, and when there is increased confidence and comfort in sharing personal information with the organisation. But making a start is an important step forward to understanding your people.

Table. GPGs of women and men from different cultural heritages. A1 excludes Europe, Australia, New Zealand, USA and Canada

The following example shows the GPG by age ranges. It provides a distribution of age across the organisation. I usually cross referenced with a table showing length of service. The high GPGs at the higher age brackets may be attributed to old agreements and accrued entitlements over time. With new agreements, this might correct itself over time. ?

Table. Example of GPG by Age

When I look at gender pay gap figures, I always think about the human experience behind the figures. It’s not just a number, a single figure. Someone earning only $50,000 a year is a challenge with today’s cost of living pressures - paying bills and putting food on the table.

Women on average earn else then men and do some of the most valuable work in the community, education, health, caring, hospitality, basically everything that you need to keep you alive and well.? So, the gender pay gap is worth addressing.

I also think about people working above their level, working more hours than they are paid, unpaid and invisible work, negotiated commencement salaries, and cumulative effects (lower superannuation over time).

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WGEA also announced the?date for this year’s Equal Pay Day as 19 August, marking the 50 days?into the new financial year that Australian women must work to earn the same, on average, as men did last year.

This year WGEA’s Equal Pay Day campaign theme ‘It Doesn’t Add Up’?is a call to action for employers to contribute to improving workplace gender equality by investigating and understanding the environment in their own workplace.

But I know it means so much to take the work even deeper with intersectionality and intersectional analysis at the centre so people who are marginalised can also be counted.

Intersectional gender pay gap analysis is important, but intersectional analysis is just as important.

Analysis by gender, cultural diversity, disability, LGBTIQ+, Trans and Gender Diverse and Non-Binary, Age and a combination of all of these dimensions of diversity can and should be done.

And the complexity of the work embraced in a way that is respectful, involves lived experience voices, to ensure integrity of the data, make sure people are counted, and we develop targeted actions (not broad-brush strokes) that is informed by the evidence.

People have multiple cultural identities - two, three, four, five or more. All these parts of your cultural identity are important.

So, to find the truth, prepare to dive into the details, do the math, share your methodologies, share your insights, continue talking about it, contribute to the discussion. Invest in cultural safety, anti-racism or racial equity work before asking employees to share their personal data on cultural identity. As yourself, what gives you the right to ask for that data, and what action will you commit to bridge the racial equity gap.

I have enjoyed reading the countless contributions of others online and in conversation. I try to read everything. I have recently worked with some great pay equity specialists. The conversations on DEI and GPGs are continuing to evolve and mature. And the ship has set course, and we are well on our way.? Let’s get there five times faster than the 136 years anticipated to close the global gender pay gap.

My previous articles

https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/gender-pay-gaps-why-intersectional-analysis-roman-ru%25C5%25BEback%25C3%25BD-c5n1c/?trackingId=Buxi%2BZn7RWiXoHnx%2Fz7UiA%3D%3D

https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/some-basic-pay-equity-analysis-diversity-inclusion-roman-ru%25C5%25BEback%25C3%25BD/?trackingId=guufhZ%2F9QQ%2BxNfIQY6DPCA%3D%3D

# Gender ?#Paygaps ?#GenderEquity ?#Intersectionality ?#Equity ?#Inclusion ?#Diversity ?#Belonging ?#GenderPayGaps