Australia’s Largest Bank to Allow Workers to Discuss Pay: AFR
(Bloomberg) -- Australia's largest bank removed secrecy clauses on salaries in its contracts, just days after a similar move by its rival.
Commonwealth Bank of Australia told employees they would be free to discuss their pay starting April 11 to boost pay equity, though they shouldn't pressure co-workers to discuss the topic, the Australian Financial Review reported.
“As part of our commitment to identify and address any perceived or actual pay inequity, we have decided to remove the pay confidentiality clauses from new contracts and waive the obligation for confidentiality in all current ones,” the AFR cited a bank spokesman as saying.
The bank added that it has publicly disclosed “gender pay equity outcomes” for the past five years, including the latest figures in its 2021 annual report.
Australian men are twice as likely to be highly paid than women, according to a report from the Workplace Gender Equality Agency. While the pay gap narrowed to 22.8% in the year through March 2021, the drop was just half a percentage point, as calls grow louder for stronger visibility and treatment of women in the country's labor force.
Read more: Men Twice as Likely to Be Well Paid as Women in Australia
The change came after union concerns that managers were disciplining workers for discussing pay, the AFR reported. The bank had rejected the claims, it added.
Smaller rival Westpac Banking Corp. said earlier in the week it will no longer stop employees from openly discussing their salaries as part of an initiative to help narrow the gender pay gap.
Read more: Banker Salaries Are No Longer Closely Guarded Secrets at Westpac
©2022 Bloomberg L.P.
-
Talking Points This Week: Tech Nerves, FII Buying, And A Faraway Banking Shock
The global markets are not shining this Diwali. The exception in the large markets is, India.
-
Midterm Rally Lasted A Day. The Hard Reality Of A Divided US May Last Two Years | Opinion
Between a contested AI boom, a debt ceiling that arrives in 2027 and a president with every incentive to act alone, the next two years may prove more volatile than the first day's rally suggests.
-
Blue Wave Will Derail the AI Trade but Won't Dismantle the AI Era | Unhedged Position
The Democrats' sweep of the US Congress will see politics collide with economic forces both over the long and short term.
-
It's Time To Take The GST Council's Bet On Trust Global
Payment records can prove India's services exports, and clear, proportionate rules can bring foreign digital sellers into the tax net.
-
Opinion | India at 38: From Innovation Overperformer to Innovation Powerhouse
India now has 453 VC-backed deep science startups, 18 of them late-stage, after 117 percent growth since 2020. Laurus Labs, at USD 9.3 billion, is the most valuable deep science company in any middle-income economy outside China.
-
Navigating Energy Crossroads: S Jaishankar's Call For Diversified Supply Chains At G20 Ministerial Meeting
As geopolitical fault lines continue to test maritime trade routes and commodity flows, Jaishankar's message remains pertinent: true economic resilience requires open markets, protected transit lines, and a genuine commitment to multilateral cooperation rather than coercion.
-
Indians Are Travelling, But Not Every Journey Is A Holiday | The Week In Whys
Pilgrims, patients and working women are the real travellers, and the system hasn't quite caught up with them.
-
Getting To Work Costs Women More | The Reason Why
It is not just about women paying more than men. It is about women paying much more in cities than in villages.
-
AI Bias In Investing Cannot Be Eliminated, But It Can Be Governed
Framing is a particularly important example as identical financial information presented in terms of gains rather than losses can lead an LLM to reach a different assessment.
