CANBERRA, Sept. 23 (Xinhua) -- Australian companies with more than 1,000 employees will be forced to disclose how much it pays women compared to men under a plan announced by the Opposition.
Tanya Plibersek, deputy leader of the Australian Labor Party (ALP), made the announcement on Sunday, saying that the gender pay gap is "stubbornly high."
Australian women in full-time jobs earn 15 percent less than men on average.
"We believe that by asking large companies to report on the difference between men and women's wages in their company, they'll focus even more on reducing that gender pay gap in their business," Plibersek told reporters on Sunday.
"We know that shining a light, transparency, is the best medicine.
"A lot of companies simply don't know that they have a gender pay gap, they assume that they don't, and when they do a gender pay audit, they are surprised."
Prime Minister Scott Morrison said that the policy could create disharmony in workplaces but did not rule out supporting the proposal.
"It is, I believe, a commitment from, I would hope, everybody who serves in politics to see that pay gap narrower, but I don't want to set one set of employees against another," he said.
"Transparency is important and I think there are a lot of opportunities for companies to do that, so, look I will have a close look at this but what I want to be really satisfied about is: will it actually help people achieve the goal? Will it actually help companies work together to achieve these goals? Will it actually help us to get where we want to go?"
