Australian energy company is giving hundreds of female employees raise to make sure they get paid same amount as their male counterparts
An Australian energy company is giving hundreds of female employees a raise to make sure they get paid the same amount as their male counterparts.
It's "not right or fair to expect women to have to wait any longer for the pay gap to close -- so, we're fixing that right now," said Catherine Tanna, managing director of Energy Australia, said in a statement announcing the move.
The changes will be made quickly. Energy Australia said the new pay packages will go into effect next month, effectively closing the company's current 2% gender pay gap.
But addressing the broader issue of unequal pay across Australia will take a lot longer.
Australian women earn on average about 84 cents for every dollar that men earn, according to government figures. The gap widens once annual bonuses and other additional payments are included, with women earning about 73 cents for every dollar that men earn.
That means men working full time earn nearly 27,000 Australian dollars ($21,000) a year more on average than full-time women employees, according to Australia's Workplace Gender Equality Agency.
Read more on cnn.com.