Conducting a pay equity audit

Undertaking a pay equity audit

Addressing pay equity within organisations focuses on identifying and removing barriers to workforce participation and career progression for female employees. 

A pay equity audit is a critical first step in addressing pay equity.  Undertaking a pay equity audit involves analysing payroll data by the gender of employees as well as human resource policies and practices to identify where gender pay differences and gender pay issue exist.

Overview of the audit process

Conducting the audit

The Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace agency has developed an online tool for organisations to use to conduct a pay equity audit.  The method of analysis used is to calculate the overall average pay difference between a group of male and female employees, and then look to see to what extent these differences can be explained by factors such as grade of employee, section of the organisation, full-time or part-time status.

Open the online EOWA pay equity tool

Pay equity employer toolkit

Once an audit is completed, organisations should develop a pay equity action plan outlining strategies to address gender pay issues. The Pay Equity Employer Toolkit is a resource package for employers that outlines how to turn audit data into achievable pay equity strategies.