MELBOURNE: Australia’s major sporting codes have united to advance equal pay for elite women athletes, throwing their support behind the release of the ‘Pathway to Pay Equality’ Report, which outlines the specific actions needed to close the gender pay gap.
This significant joint initiative from the Male Champions of Change (MCC) Sport group, features leaders of top sports organizations such as Kevin Roberts of Cricket Australia and Craig Tiley of Tennis Australia for the first time on an international scale.
“Sport plays a critical role in Australia’s economy, national identity, social cohesion and community well-being,” MCC Sport founder Elizabeth Broderick said.
“Yet equal pay – the most visible manifestation of a genuine commitment to equality – still remains out of reach for elite women athletes across many sports.
“We believe the inter-connected steps outlined in the report provide the pathway to gender equality and delivering equal pay in sport.”
The new report outlines:
• The difference between like-for-like pay equity and sustainable pay equality in the context of sport • A model to achieve equal base pay in sport
• Why arguments against equal pay for elite women athletes don’t stack up
• Support required across the entire sports ecosystem to achieve pay equality
• A ‘point in time’ self-assessment of each MCC Sport member’s progress on the Pathway to Pay Equality All the signatories have committed to evaluate and report on their performance annually to ensure they accelerate progress towards pay equality over the next five years.
Tennis Australia highlighted the Australian Open’s rise to gradually equal the prize money offered to men and women, having led the way since 1984.
“We’ve demonstrated through equal prize money and exposure that women’s tennis has massive appeal and can more than hold its own.
“This is driven by the belief that the best player of a Grand Slam event – both male and female – should be rewarded equally for their ability to achieve at the highest level. “It’s an approach that has delivered overwhelmingly positive outcomes for tennis.” Tennis Australia CEO Craig Tiley said.
Cricket Australia’s (CA) ground-breaking 2017 pay deal introduced an equal base rate of pay for male and female elite cricketers for the first time as well.
CA CEO Kevin Roberts added: “We want our women’s elite teams to help shape the brand of cricket, drive the game’s growth and continue to deliver international success.
“On every measure, they have done this as athletes and ambassadors.
“There is no question they deserve pay parity and we developed a model to achieve this.
“We are continuing to put in place the systems and support to ensure we can deliver sustainable pay equality.”
In 2018, MCC Sport also completed a detailed review of pay equity in corporate and administrative roles in their organisations, which is summarised in the report. The review involved a sample of 10-member organisations and was completed based on data provided to the Australian Government’s Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA).
Using the WGEA methodology, an average overall pay gap of 27% among participating organisations was identified. This compared to 31.5% or WGEA’s ‘Sports and Physical Recreation Activities’ category and the national average of 21.3% according to WGEA’s 2018 Annual Pay Equity Scorecard.
The MCC Sport Group has committed to reduce the overall gap, and to take immediate action to address any unjustifiable difference in “like-for-like” roles in corporate and administrative roles.
