Category: Uncategorized

October 2, 2023

Opinion Piece.

Kudos to organisation’s publicly launching and sharing their Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Strategies and Action Plans. I love reading them all when I can. I like a launch and the promise of what can be achieved.

Quick question? How many times have you been invited to a forum that signals the successful implementation or completion of a DEI strategy or action plan?

“We have completed our three-year DEI strategy, all the actions have been completed on time, all the targets met, all success metrics completed, every KPI achieved, all accountabilities met by responsible officers, the organisation is celebrating the success of achieving equality.”

“We are now ready to embark on the next even bigger and better Plan!”

So, once again, kudos to organisation’s publicly launching and sharing their Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Strategies and Action Plans. I love reading them all.

Some are bold and aspirational, some are foundational, some are passive in their approach, some are broad brush without much detail, some are lengthy and detailed, some are practical, some have pillars, some have clear and transparent data, some don’t, some don’t link the evidence with the action, some have targets, some may have quotas, some introduce big pieces of work in the strategy, some are glossy and have a lot of pictures, some use new terminology, some contain DEI maturity models (I have collected quite a few), some have definitions, some have big commitment statements, some promise a lot, some are two years or four years, and some have interesting narratives. Some also bring the work to life with human stories.

·       What’s the right kind of DEI strategy?

·       Can a poorly written DEI Strategy derail, disengage or damage?

·       Can a great DEI Strategy or Action Plan make a significant difference (Yes, I believe it can and have seen it work, with long term vision, discipline, and genuine commitment)

Some don’t show you how the work is connected across different pillars and sections of the strategy.

I often think about when you’re cooking or following a recipe, you have all the ingredients, but you need to know how to bring it all together, and ensure the meal is delicious or nutritious . Being a good cook requires years of skill and practice. But once achieved, the outcome is undeniably positive.

DEI work is much deeper as you are getting to the core of someone’s being. The care for the work is important as it has potential to change people’s lives.

How do practitioners develop a DEI strategies and action plans? Is there a template design, ‘recipe’ or even standardized approach to developing DEI framework, strategy, or action – one similar to an engineering process, physics, or maths equation?

Is your action plan fit for purpose, is it flexible, is it specific or adaptable to your environment. Is it appropriate for your context? Is it too prescriptive? Is it a standard ‘off the shelf’ Strategy? Is in a imitation of other Strategies? Does the evidence and data support the actions? Are the diversity data sets inclusive? Is the methodology sound? Is the terminology so broad, that the unique and varied experiences of people not understood, or actions not personalised?  Someone once told me that disability is as unique as a fingerprint. Does the Strategy use a deficit narrative or suggests fixing people, ‘othering’ people – diverse people, minorities, disadvantaged, ‘those people’, boxes, or other labels? Does it speak to everyone?

Is your DEI Strategy an overarching document that houses all DEI action plans and work? Does it guide the guide the reader on how to be equitable and inclusive in every setting? Does it include ways to address systemic and structural barriers that are often hidden? Does it hold leaders to account with KPIs and good governance structures? Are leaders invested? Does it include targets or quotas? Are quotas required if nothing is changing?

I have come across Strategies and Action Plans with hundreds of actions that can overwhelm leaders; plans that sat on shelves because of no accountability, no understanding of the benefits to the business, or success metrics, no time, no resources, no authorising environment to do the work. This leads to lack of engagement and lack of self-initiation by people outside of HR or the DEI teams.

I have always used DEI strategies and action plans as a guide or road map, and not necessarily the one and only instrument or way to progress DEI. I include equity principles, organisational enablers, and self-directed actions in my plans, as well as accountabilities, timelines, and success metrics.

I’m sure this is not a new concept and has been influenced by the evolution and maturity of DEI over the last 50 years. The sharing of DEI strategies in the public domain has been such an advance forward in our profession.

I used to develop actions for each ‘diversity’ pillar. However, I found the implementation of action using this approach too narrow and siloed.

Examples of Diversity Pillars

·       Gender

·       Disability/Accessibility

·       Racial Equity/Cultural Diversity

·       LGBTIQ+

·       Generational Diversity

·       Flexibility

If we thought about how to be equitable and inclusive in every setting, in our own areas of work and practice, then it may make sense to develop pillars across mainstream employment situations, or external facing work, for example,

Example Pillars – equitable and inclusive in mainstream employment situations and in every setting

·       Community Engagement, Collaboration and Participation

·       Safety and Respect

·       Employee Experience

·       Pathways

·       Education

·       Cultural and Psychological Safety

·       Excellence with Equity (Innovation, Sustainability, Ethical Decisions)

·       Leadership and Competency

·       Measurement and Accountability (including diversity data literacy)

Essential Elements Under Each Pillar

·       Actions, Success Metrics, Responsibilities, Resourcing and Time Frames

·       Embedding of intersectionality principles

·       Governance, Measurement and Accountability

Accountability over DEI outcomes

·       Live dashboard diversity data (for example, pay equity, diversity in leadership, exit, promotion data, job satisfaction, cultural safety, etc).

·       Regular DEI performance reports shared with all employees.

·       Regular performance report including key data, demonstrating how combinations of various actions have contributed to DEI outcomes, and how DEI activities are embedded and sustained.

·       Executives and Executive Sponsors/Champions to complete three actions a year (from the DEI Strategy) that will drive equity and inclusion in their portfolio, and two actions to drive change across their organisation.

·       Executives to report annually on their DEI KPIs/actions/outcomes to CEO as part of their performance management and appraisal (accountability)

The inclusion of the following under each pillar

• Guiding equity principles
• Organisational enablers

·       Individual – self-directed actions

after each pillar that gives guidance on principles and actions that enable and embed DEI.

With all these efforts, I wonder how many DEI strategies and action plans sit on the shelf or remain uncompleted? How many are fully or deliberately implemented? How many stagnate? How many don’t have the resources or professional skills to complete them?

See my article on, “How many people to implement a gender equity plan – at least five people.”

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/how-many-people-implement-gender-equity-plan-least-five-ruzbacky/?trackingId=9DRZaE1ZSJ%2BKA%2BB1Ro%2BXQQ%3D%3D

We agree that there is no end date to DEI work. However, it would be great to see an ‘end of completion’ announcement for a DEI strategy or action plan that states a time period, e.g., 2023-2026.

“We have completed our three-year DEI strategy, all the actions have been completed on time, all the targets met, all success metrics completed, every KPI achieved, all accountabilities met by responsible officers, the organisation is celebrating the success of achieving equality.”

Now that’s an event I would love to attend.

Roman Ružbacký

March 4, 2024

In June 2023, I shared some of my examples of gender pay gap analysis. In the spirit of knowledge sharing, I attempted to show some examples of intersectional pay equity analysis of women and me from different cultural backgrounds and disability. It was to show that it can be done, and you should be doing this, or attempting this, in your own organisation. Even if you don’t have fully inclusive data sets, you can still determine trends. The use of qualitative data can also get to the heart of the matter and provide some real insights into the human impact of 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.

Gender pay gaps highlight areas where employee’s may experience economic and employment vulnerability such as job insecurity through occupational segregation, and compounded forms of inequity – gender, racial, disability, age, etc.

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.

However, work doesn’t end on 27 February. 2024. And if your ship has hit the iceberg, then look at building a new ship that will steer a new course. Don’t get fixated on a single figure. A high figure tells you need to look under the hood. Your competitors and peers have most likely developed a sophisticated understanding and path of action to reduce their GPGs.

I wonder 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.

I wonder if it will be left for the Diversity, Equity & Inclusion or Human Resources Directors and professional, and even the payroll and data reporting lead that will do all the heavy lifting, in collected, cleaning, analysing data and providing insights, strategies and actions. Will there be an increase in accountability, action and resources to do this work effectively?

The emotionality and irrational defensiveness by some sections of the media, including some very loud men and questioning of the methodology has been staggering. The polarisation of gender pay gaps has reminded me of a movie rating like the one below. They give the recent announcement a one rating. Whereas, those who know what it all means and what’s at stake are around the 4 to 5 mark. 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.

So to find the truth, be prepared to dive into the details, do the maths, share your methodologies, share your insights, continue talking about it, contributing to the discussion. If my hope has faded in some CEOs to actually do something, and wait for this to blow over.

I have enjoyed reading the countless contributions online and in conversation. The conversations on DEI and GPGs are continuing to evolve and mature. And I don’t get distracted by the new found love for GPGs. But I know it means so much to see real and sustainable action, and take the work even deeper with intersectionality and intersectional analysis at the centre so people who are marginalised can also be counted.

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.

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 see of data takes practice. And my drive comes from a previous manager very early in my career that was fraudulent with pay equity data that I had analysed. I get a very guttural and emotional reaction to cherry picking and fudging 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.

I have devised an example below showing an organisational GPG of 40.8% with close to 0% in band gaps. It’s a small and manageable sample size of 40.

When there is gender parity in non manager levels, the GPS is reduced to 23.4% (addressing job segregation). When the non manager roles are paid higher, then the GPGs is reduced to 20.9% (addressing jobs that may be undervalued). And over time, when we reach closer to gender parity across each classification level, we reduce to GPG to 5.0% (addressing transition into the leadership, talent and career progression), plus other factors such as leave, flexibility, sexual harassment, culture, cultural safety etc.

Using the salaries from Table 1 above, and inserting them into the table below gave a median gap of 58.7% compared to the mean gap of 45.8%. You can insert your actual salaries in a table like the one below to determine your GPG.

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.

The gender pay gaps of approximately 300 Victorian Public Sector Departments and Entities were published in 2021, after the passing of the Gender Equality Act (Vic) in 2020. The results show the overall mean and median, base and total remuneration, and can be viewed on the portal here:

Data was collected in the last pay run prior to 30 June 2021 and 2023. You can also access all VPS Gender Equality Action Plans. They include actions against seven gender equality indicators, including GPG, representation, job segregation, promotion, flexibility, etc. In 2021, each organisations developed actions addressing GPGs in their GEAPs.

On 20 Feb 2024, all VPS entities submitted their gender progress reports and gender equity audits (that include GPG analysis) to the Commission, reporting on progress against every action since 2021, including GPGs, and use qualitative and quantitative results from employee experience surveys.

Data on other diversity dimensions including age ranges, cultural identity, LGBTIQ+, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander, Women, Men, ‘Self-Described’ (VPS terminology), disability, were reported from data collected in 2023, and GPGs will be analysed on available data in 2024.

Intersectional analysis on other diversity dimensions have already featured in 2023 using 2021 data, and will feature again in future reports by the Commission. Longitudinal data will show what progress is being made.

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.

I then created a category of a person’s cultural heritage that excludes Europe, USA, Canada, New Zealand and Australia called A1 (see table below). These are preliminary workings. 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.

Proactive organisations have conducted more granular type analysis. For example, analysis by level to the CEO, manager and non-manager categories, actual classification levels, work areas, occupation type, part time, casuals separately, fixed term and other diversity dimensions to find the true extent of gender and intersectional inequity. Below is an example of GPGs for full time and part time employees (showing higher GPGs), as well as GPGs for ongoing and fixed term employees. You analysis can show areas of vulnerability in employment, where it may be difficult to negotiate higher salaries.

Two years of work by https://www.genderequalitycommission.vic.gov.au/ CGEPS has helped us understanding some of the causal effects of GPGs, in combination with other gender equity actions – such as eliminating sexual harassment, racism, ableism, discrimination, addressing under-representation, under-utilisation, bias, casualisation, unpaid & invisible work, caring, career breaks, recruitment, women in lower paid professions (teaching, health care, age care, etc), the professions that keep us alive and well.

Organisations can also consider factors such as people working above their level, working more hours than they are paid, negotiated commencement salaries, and cumulative effects (lower super over time).

Transparency is a great step in the publication of gender pay gaps. I hope we keep our foot on the accelerator. Accountability, including targets, KPIs and actions to reduce the gap have been the some of the drivers for organisations successfully reducing their gap.

We know that it is estimated that it will take 170 years to close the GPG, but we’d prefer to see it done in our lifetime.

The ship has truly set sail and this is a good course it has taken.

Roman Ružbacký

April 1, 2024

Resistance. It’s a part of our reality. Understanding and overcoming resistance is increasingly becoming an essential skill for Diversity Equity Inclusion Belonging practitioners in 2024. Or is it? Human rights folks have been challenging people and systems that cause inequity for centuries.

The seasoned DEI practitioner is experienced in mitigating resistance because they have mastered the skill by having an intimate understanding and motivations behind resistance. Like understanding your opponent’s strengths and weaknesses. They understand that change is met by challenge.

The exceptional DEI practitioners I have met in my time have always been optimistic and happy in all their pursuits, challenges, and endeavours. It provides meaning to what they do. They go through bouts of self-doubt, set-backs, and why am I doing this. They see things for what they are. They lose and upset people along the way. But usually, they are always drawn back into the work and find a way to thrive and survive. They understand that most people are good. They understand that giving and kindness to others is a good way to live. They seek people and form deep connections. They love seeing progress.

One of the first things drummed into me early on, after trying to find work in DEI for seven years was, “Be the river that flows around the rocks and branches”. Didn’t believe it when I heard it, but true. Thanks Faith Irving!

In this context, the eternal optimist kicks in.

“Every day you may make progress. Every step may be fruitful. Yet there will stretch out before you an ever-lengthening, ever-ascending, ever-improving path. You know you will never get to the end of the journey. But this, so far from discouraging, only adds to the joy and glory of the climb.” Sir Winston Churchill

Michael Carter’s presentation, Making Diversity and Inclusion Work in Resistant Organisations in 2020, would have been handy 20 years earlier. I have done numerous posts on resistance. And I keep adding to it.

Your list might look like this:

·          inaction

·          we’re not ready yet

·          not being able to find time to meet with leaders

·          excessive wordsmithing or sanitising the message

·          continuous requests for more data or evidence

·          low participation for training and events

·          layers of approval

·          diversity fatigue

·          being ignored or invisible

·          passive aggressive responses

·          and full-on aggressive responses

And it could even look like this

·          cutting DEI budgets and people

·          unrealistic expectations

·          low paid DEI jobs

·          expectation for free emotional labour, pro bono and speaking for free

·          no dedicated or centralised expertise

·          five job interviews for a mid level DEI role

I created a diagram with all the forms of resistance I’ve seen and heard about over the years, but can’t find any space to include them.

I wonder if it cuts the same way in other professions?

Surprisingly, there are also DEI people and advocates that can also disrupt, derail or block DEI work. They may have blind spots, biases and habits. They may be uncomfortable in areas of DEI work outside their experience or expertise. They may have their own personal agenda. They may ignore and make others feel invisible or inferior. They may think their methodology and approach is the only way and best way to do the work. I’m sure there are many approaches that work well. But there may also be approaches that are not sound, not informed by evidence, and can be damaging. And when this happens, you can be on the receiving end of a bad decision or outcome. “We know what’s good for you.” and “We just have to live with it”, while no-one is really listening.

Or you can be on the receiving end of radical candour, which can sting but jolt you to reality. Or you could live in low self-awareness and be inflexible and not bend or soften with age.

It’s tricky as we need to reach those in and outside the profession, where at times, those outside the profession or in the media, have the loudest voices on the subject.

I wonder with resistance in DEI, are we continually in road works mode – never finished – just patching up, fixing the wear and tear in an ad hoc way? Or are we deliberately disrupting with the intention of never getting it fixed? Or are we disrupting with the intention of making it better in the long run?

We learn to navigate many forms of resistance, usually through mistakes and being burned. As the fog clears, we see things for what they are. We may become more intuitive in our practice and read people and situations better. And learn to work in the fog, in the grey.

With experience, I have anticipated my long list of resistance, and have developed and practiced approaches to minimise and overcome resistance, like finding the backstreets to avoid the roadworks. Or taking control over the roadworks. You can always stop driving, avoid the roads all together and build a teleporter or spaceship.

Roman Ružbacký

October 23, 2023

How I discovered Melbourne’s coffee culture?

Sometimes, the best part of my day is the coffee on the way to work. Sounds familiar?

I love visiting my local my local café. I have been going there for years. I don’t feel like I’m just paying for coffee. I’m paying for a coffee experience. I never tire of it. My local café was a life saver during lockdown. I’ve frequented many good coffee houses in Melbourne, including some of Melbourne’s finest coffee institutions. I think most Melburnians agree that we have a great coffee culture. You hear about the great cafes. Have you tried so and so? The best of the best is usually undisputed. Great feedback is often unsolicited. OK, I respect people’s choice to drink 7/11 or BP coffee. It’s just not my thing. And International Roast was fancy for some in the 80s. But still not my thing.

When I was a teenager living in West Brunswick in the 80s. Saturday mornings were spent shopping at Sydney Rd. On Tuesday nights my dad would come visit and take my brother and I out to play pool or pinball at a local café in Sydney Rd, before starting his nightshift. He took us to kind of cafes where you’d find the Vittoria Coffee machine, old style glasses, and the old men playing cards at table down the back of the café. I remember seeing the plume of cigarette smoke that filled the room and the large glass retro ashtrays. My dad took me to all the cafes across the inner Melbourne north. I was a regular at Lygon St, Brunswick St and Smith St from eight years old. And on Sunday afternoons we went to Acland St, which was an institution for Eastern Europeans – cake, coffee and delis.

Back to Sydney Rd. At the time, the cafes on Sydney Road had some of the strongest coffee on the planet. And it was the same at my friend’s houses. When my Italian, Greek, Lebanese and Turkish friends invited me over to their place, their parents always offered me something to eat. They would always have a brew of coffee on the old gas stove. My best coffee experiences were in Lygon St in the early 90s – usually between 2am and 3am in the morning after a night out. Entrée size gnocchi ragu and a flat white to finish a great night. And with great company too.

How is the magic of a great coffee experiences created? It’s not by chance.

I have found that with the great cafes of Melbourne there’s something that just works. It all comes together. It’s not just about the vibe (sorry Dani Denuto). It’s also the space that’s created, the layout, the colours, the chairs, the service (attentive but discreet), the choice of music, the consistency of the coffee – the people and the team dynamics (all gelling together).

The centrepiece, the X factor, for me has always been the barista. I follow baristas. Once I find a great barista I stay loyal. In the early 2000s, my family would drive 20km on a Saturday morning to have coffee at the Street Café on Lygon St.

Ruth was the barista. She loved making coffee. The coffee was great each time. Ruth had finesse. I remember one time seeing Ruth cry while making coffee. I asked what’s going on? She suffered for her coffee (Seinfeld moment). She was overwhelmed that morning with so many people wanting her coffee. But also driven by perfectionism to make each coffee great.  The coffee was at perfect temperature, not lukewarm, not too milky or frothy. It had great texture. It had some bite, but not bitter, and had great finish!

A few years ago, the old milk bar that was on the corner, opposite my house, for 30 years was converted to a hip café. Something magical arrived in the burbs. But after a few years, it lost it. The whole system just fell apart. It started with the best and second best barista leaving and then a whole lot of other things. These days, if I’m desperate, I look out the window to see who is making the coffee. Then I decide, YES, great – I’ll go over and get a coffee. Or, NO, looks who’s making the coffee – I’m going to make an instant this time or drive for my second coffee in about an hour. And finally, I have occasionally used a coffee name for all kinds of reasons …….Name Please? Insert favourite singer, author, bushranger or celebrity. I discovered I wasn’t the first one to use a coffee name.

The coffee experience is really important to me. The barista takes people to their happy place. They are a master of their domain. The great baristas work on their magic and understand what the customer likes. You feel confident when you see them in action. They deliver consistently. They are in the business of making people happy. They are truly supported behind the scenes to flourish. A great coffee experience sets up your day. Can workplaces take you to the same place? Do they understand what it takes to make the magic happen?

You can lose the coffee magic in one sip?

One day, I came in to my regular ‘go to’ cafe, and my super awesome barista, Mighty Mouse, was gone! I got a newbie. I was greeted with a grumpy barista and a bitter tasting coffee that lasted my train ride into the city. I was still tasting coffee residue and milk that must have been out all morning for the next 30 minutes. I went back for a second day, and then a third, and the grumpiness was still there. The coffee was bad. And I was grumpy. As were all the customers after me. Grumpiness can be infectious.

I thought to myself and starting internalising and over thinking this experience. I guess because I set this up to be my happy place. I started asking myself – What is this? Am I the only one seeing this? Why am the only one seeing this? Why can’t anyone else see this? Am I being too judgemental? Am I being over the top? Am I expecting too much? Should I do a one star google review? Should I say something? Will me bringing something up make me look like the person with a problem? Is this on me? It’s then difficult to read the situation? Is this a problem directed at me? Or is there something going on in your life?

I felt like a stranger in my own café.

So, the following day, I sailed past, had a quick look in, and kept on walking. I had a ‘bury my head in the sand’ moment. Is it on me? I thought, no, I don’t need to provide an explanation. It’s on you.

A negative workplace experience can feel like a bad taste in your mouth, similar to a bad coffee experience. It’s tastes bitter. The residue stays with you. I remember one workplace where a manager started swearing because the new Director was swearing. Discrimination, inequity, exclusion, bullying, sexual harassment, victimisation, gaslighting or poor behaviours can also affect a workplace and spread like a virus. It’s hard to experience. It’s hard to tackle. It takes effort. And even after 20 years of managing complaints and conducting mediations, I hate conflict. It’s like ripping a bandaid off. And when behaviours and actions covert and subtle, the bad taste and residue can last for years.

The great coffee places understand what it takes to create and sustain the magic

I’m in awe of cafes that have survived and thrived over the years. What is that magic they possess? How do they provide that superb and consistent coffee experience? They understand coffee. They understand quality. They practice it. They have discipline. They have a system. They employ great baristas. They have good coffee making culture. One that says, I care about coffee, I’m serious about coffee, coffee runs through my veins and I’m happy to see my customers. I respect my customers. I won’t fail them. They know me and they know what keeps me coming back. And when you love what you do, when you understand what you do, then you have my $5 any day of the week. I’ll keep coming back.

When you experience great workplaces, great people, and achieve great outcomes, it doesn’t happen by accident. There is a complete system that comes together to fully understand, engage and inspire your employees and customers. Like the great coffee places, they understand what it takes to keep make the magic happen and keep the magic alive. They truly understand the coffee experience.

When I seek inspiration, I start my day with an awesome coffee experience. It has taught me how great workplace environments can be created, and how the great ones keep the magic alive.

Roman Ružbacký

July 12, 2025

Years ago, I met an inspirational Executive Coach and Leadership Trainer, Liz Wright of Leadership Café, and participated in a five-month leadership program with leaders and those aspiring to be leaders.

I remember four things clearly: (1) Liz looked after a herd of donkeys in the UK, (2) we had a common interest in film music, especially the Lord of the Rings, (3) we developed a leadership blueprint which I still use to this day in my DEI work, and (4) we had a heart-to-heart conversation about my career (which I now call a vocation), values and purpose.

For years, prior to starting the leadership program, I had a recurring dream. Tidal waves coming towards me and crashing dangerously close to me. Looking up the interpretation of the dream, I found the following passage:

“The message may be that your old self needs to be left behind. This may mean you must stop carrying around with you the crippling burden of your past (irrational guilt, feelings, and martyrdom complex or any other negative self-programming); and instead, you must open yourself to what the present self is offering. Alternatively, the old self may be old attachments, habits, ambitions, values, goals; in which case the dream is telling you that the only way forward for you lies in giving these up and looking deeper within yourself for better values (where better means more in tune with your real self).”

The message has been central to my transformational journey in Diversity, Equity and Inclusion practice. When self-doubt creeps in, it comes to us all, we start with the chatter…. am I on the right path? am I making a difference? am I being distracted by things I can’t control? am I shovelling s hit uphill? am I being totally consumed? am I being mainstream because it works for me? am I losing my authenticity? am I losing my way? am I losing my self-awareness? am I losing my confidence? am I getting more cynical? am I being inflexible? am I being caught up in playing in a system where the house always wins? am I working a way that doesn’t work for me? do I feel like walking away? have I lost my authenticity? am I feeling invisible, or in constant pain? then realising the all-consuming ego, and grounding myself with Joe Dispenza, Ekhart Tolle, Pema Chodren or Mrs Coehlo, my year nine English teacher, or a good walk or check in conversation? And then we may get a sign. The world is telling us something.

I visited an op shop this week and it has a coffee cart inside the shop. I had my first coffee made by a trainee barista who was blind! I was curious about the assistive technology he was using which gave voice instructions. He made an awesome coffee and we had a good chat. I thought of possibilities, a moment to feel, a moment to share, a moment to influence, a moment for accessibility and inclusion a moment to believe, a moment to say you’re on the right track, keep going. And the day just kept unfolding like this. Time for the trusty pen and paper (OK keyboard) and start writing.

And gravitating back to a way I have seen best observed from our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander leaders – generous leadership. In spades. “We are willing to show and teach you if you listen” is what I heard recently at a Cultural Education walk and talk. Has my fearless DEI practice has always been about active deep listening and understanding?

Generous leadership is a style where leaders prioritize the development and well-being of people and the environment, fostering growth and success for everyone involved. It’s characterized by giving freely of time, knowledge, and support without expecting direct personal gain.

Moving from dream state to reality was the step under the guidance of Liz Wright, was the development of my Leadership Blueprint which I have been sharing with new diversity, equity and inclusion practitioners. It is inspired by the wonderful Glenn Singleton whose transformative work in racial equity and Courageous Conversations about Race Compass has brought a level of consciousness to my personal and professional life in different realms – in fact almost every day, with every interaction, this model comes into my consciousness.

It takes all these feelings, thoughts, beliefs and translates them into action.

The closed boxed includes the system and way I choose to operate. Over time I have learned to be less reactive in my practice and more intuitive. And it has evolved in ten years since I fist wrote this,

Believing

• Cares about the work
• Offers a personalised and accessible level of service
• Has integrity
• Walks the talk
• Provides voice to others
• Inclusive

Thinking

• Critical Interpretation
• Quality of output
• Depth in thinking
• Unconventional
• Has ideas

Feeling

• Brings authentic self to work
• Is empathetic
• Feels value in the work

The dotted boxed includes the areas I continue to work on. Does this sound familiar with diversity, equity and inclusion folks in 2025? Does this sound relevant to those not in DEI work?

Realm 1

• Sustain energy
• Be calm on the inside
• Keep things in perspective
• Embrace the chaos
• Control impulses
• Look and feel great

Realm 2

• Be more adaptable
• Manage pace of change
• Don’t be distracted by operational and admin tasks
• Connected planning
• Pear back the message

Realm 3

• Be yourself more skilfully
• Leverage skills of others to progress a shared agenda
• Make value proposition a reality
• Take a back seat
• Leave old habits behind
• Do something different

In the spirit of gratitude for those who have shared their time and wisdom with me, I’d like to share this work in self reflection and hope it may help or resonate with you. I hope it may help to contribute to your practice, in your own unique way. I have enjoyed this afternoon writing again, an inspired by the belief that there is always someone who will always care, in a time of need. Channeling generosity to pay it forward.

For anyone who has worked in the areas of human rights, diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility, we have a deep respect and care for the work because it reflects our values and beliefs and helps to make lives better. It is often selfless. No effort is ever wasted. Every inclusive action counts, no matter how small or unseen.

Do you have a leadership blueprint? And does it centre on leadership style that is selfless and shows deep cares for the work and for the people doing the work? We often are waiting for leaders to show up or can be disillusioned with leadership. I’ve decided a long time ago, they’re not coming, so be the best leader you can be. And continue to work a little each day to be the best practitioner and person you can be.

Roman Ružbacký

August 19, 2024

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.

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).

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.

Roman Ružbacký

April 2, 2025

🍂🌷☘Sharing knowledge around the respectful collection, analysis and critical interpretation data ensures that we understand what the data may be saying.

🔥Data can help get to the truth of the matter. Data can change lives. Data can impact decision making. Data (quantitative and qualitative) can help us understand the human experience. It can also help us to address inequity and exclusion in all its forms.

🔥Data collection, cleaning, analysis, insights, actions takes years of work, and I’m usually asked to come in and help when there’s a tricky situation, when things don’t make sense. With experience you can see patterns. You can pick out anomalies in a sea of data. You get a sense how an error or inaccuracy can impact a whole system. How is the data connected?

🤷Before collecting data, do we need to do racial equity work to build cultural safety? The prefer not to answer responses in culture survey results may indicate an absence of work in certain areas, or a lack of trust. I also wonder what gives me the right to ask for personal diversity data?  Story telling is another way to understand the human experience.

🧮There’s knowing your DEI data and then there’s knowing your DEI data.

💿Platforms such as Diversity Atlas have data bases with over 8000 cultural heritages and ancestries and 11,000 religions and world views. It takes 5 or 17 categories in cultural diversity to a whole new level. It’s complicated, but it’s not impossible. The possibilities are endless.

🔬Having worked as analytical chemist, data literacy, accuracy and trouble shooting was drummed into me early. Understanding what your data is saying can ensure that there is effective interventions and targeted actions. These form part of every gender equity or DEI plan that I have developed. And it also means that crude targets are not developed.

🍰You can put recipes out there but you still got to know how to cook. So with that in mind, I have listed some ingredients below, something I recommend for DEI and HR professionals to explore before you undertake analysis of your workforce profile or gender equity audit data. and I’m happy to help you through it. It’s not an exhaustive list but points out to some of the complications, challenges and traps to avoid. I was part of a steering committee in 2017-2018 that helped to establish gender audit data for collection.

🧁Don’t always rely on the recipes that are given, but be curious and experiment and interrogate and question the methodology, what is missing? Don’t over cook it! Don’t get boxed in. Think outside the box. What is going to work best for your organisation? What’s going to make everyone feel included? What trends can I see? What is going to drive your performance?

These are the conversations I have regularly with my data reporting and gender pay gap specialist colleagues.

🍃Always happy to have a chat about diversity equity inclusion data

Checklist of data challenges. Please use by all means but please acknowledge the work.

Gender Pay Gaps – why intersectional analysis is important P2

Roman Ružbacký

August 19, 2024

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.

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).

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.