Pay Equity and Female Workforce Participation 27 October, 2008 | Submission This submission argues that government must reform the federal equal remuneration regime. The new regime must be a proactive framework which addresses pay inequity through legislation, enforceable regulations and education together with practical support from public institutions. Reforms proposed in this submission include: Maintaining a decent safety net of minimum wages and conditions. Improving the capacity for women to bargain for over award wages and conditions. Providing remedies to address the pay gap between those employees who do and those who do not have access to collective bargaining. Improving access to flexible work arrangements and provisions for carers. Introducing mandatory annual reporting of basic remuneration data for all employers. Instigating regulatory measures to prevent pay inequity. Broadening the capacity of Fair Work Australia (FWA) to address pay equity. Providing FWA with broad discretion and powers to make any orders it sees fit to remedy pay inequity. Establishing a specialist Pay Equity Division which is proactive in addressing the gender gap and which integrates the monitoring, compliance and remedial aspects of the pay equity scheme. Establishing a Pay Equity Commissioner within FWA. Download File: Pay Equity and Female Workforce Participation