Gender Pay Gap and Diversity in Woolworths

This article discusses the gender pay gap and diversity in Woolworths, one of the leading supermarket chains in Australia. It highlights the strategies taken by Woolworths to reduce the pay gap and maintain a diversified work culture.

Running head: EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE
Emotional Intelligence
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author’s Note:

2CULTURAL DIVERSITY
Workplace diversity is one of the most useful aspects of any organization. It is the duty of
all the organizations to make sure that they are being able to provide equal opportunities to all
their employees irrespective of the gender, sexual or the socio economic background. This is to
ensure that all the employees are being given the equal salary equal promotional facilities and
also all the other facilities in a proper way (wow2016cr.qreports.com.au. 2019). Woolworths is
one of the leading super market chains of Australia which mainly works towards the welfare of
the organization. They make sure that all their employees are getting the same amount of
payment without any discrimination being done between them on the grounds of their gender sex
or other such parameters.
In the year 2018 the company has been awarded with the title of the Gold Tier Employer
in the Australian Workplace Equality Index for our continued commitment to creating an
inclusive culture. This is because of the fact the organization has been able to maintain a proper
parity between the pay-scale among all their employees. They have made sure that about the
male and the female employees are being given the equal amount of money so that they can
provide an employee friendly work culture to all the employees. As per the opinion of Dwyer et
al. (2017), it has been seen that Woolworths have been maintaining a good reputation in terms of
providing the same payment to the employees irrespective of the gender. They have been able to
reduce the issue of gender pay gap in their organization so that there is a proper work culture in
their organization. Hickman, Ozuem and Okoya (2019) has argued in the similar context that if
proper strategies are being undertaken for the betterment of the pay gap issue among the male
and the female employees them then why is the percentage still showing a different issues. It has
been seen that the average rate of income of the male employees is still at a higher rate than the
rate of the female employees. Australian Bureau of Statistics labor force figured that they there is

3CULTURAL DIVERSITY
a difference in the income of the male and the female employees by $241.50 more per week than
women. It I also seen that on comparing there is still a difference in the income that is derived by
the male and the female employees. It has been seen that the full-time average weekly earnings
of women in any of the business organizations is at $1,484.80 when they are compared with
$1,726.30 for men (wow2016cr.qreports.com.au. 2019).
Dwyer et al. (2017) has argued in the similar context saying that Woolworths have taken
several strategies for the reduction of the pay gap between the male and the female employees. It
has been seen that Woolworths divides their entire workforce in a 50:50 ratio, so that half of the
workforce is comprised of the male employees and the other half is comprised of the female
workers. It is also evident from the company website that there is a good diversity being
maintained in the work culture of Woolworths. They make sure that they are being able to
appoint more number of female employees in their work culture and give them ample amount of
chances for flourishing in the long run. Schofield-Georgeson (2018) is of the opinion that the
female employees are also being given exact amount of opportunities to overcome their skill
gaps through the different kinds of trainings and all other kinds of support that are needed for
overcoming the drawbacks and become well settled in their lives.
Representation of women is one of them most important and also unique featuring that is
prevalent in the work culture of Woolworths. This is mainly because of the fact that they are
trying to empower women and make sure that they can follow both employee centric and
customer centric approach at the same time. Dore (2017) has stated and agreed in this similar
context that appointing more number of female employees will not only help in improving the
work culture but also help in making the women workers as the role models of many other future
employees. This in turn will be beneficial for the other existing employees as they will be able to

4CULTURAL DIVERSITY
understand that working in Woolworths will be giving them a very good opportunity to work in a
free, safe, and employee friendly healthy work environment.
As per the opinion of O’Reilly et al. (2015) developing this work culture along with
attempts of reducing the pay gap or the difference in the salary of the male and the female
workers will be useful for the purpose of helping the organization to retain the good and the
talented employees who will be able to work with better potential and make sure that they are
contributing towards the overall welfare of the organization, women held 39% of management
positions in Woolworths, with the majority in Operations. Oakley and Ward (2018) has argued
in the context that though some of the organizations like Woolworths are taking enough
strategies and initiatives for overcoming the pay gaps among the male and the female employees
but at the same time the women belonging from the indigenous regions are often neglected. They
can be considered as the double dominated ones and as they are not from an educated
background they are often subjected to a huge discrimination.
As per the opinion of Klettner, Clarke and Boersma (2016), in the year 2005,the company
took the decision of bringing their organization under the employment parity Initiative. This
was evident of the fact that they would develop strict actions on the better initiation and
implementation of the gender parity over this aspect. This would ensure that all the female
employees are getting equal representation and equal parity in the organizational culture
irrespective of their cultural, religious or economic backgrounds. 1,600 new Indigenous team
members will be included under this plan and it will be ensured that they are able to generate a
good source of income so that all the people are getting equal representation in the organization.

5CULTURAL DIVERSITY
Thus it can be concluded that Woolworths is doing a good job in making a diversified work
culture. They are looking after the needs and demands of all their employees in an unbiased
manner so that they can provide an employee friendly culture in the organization.

6CULTURAL DIVERSITY
References
Cassells, R., Duncan, A.S. and Ong, R., 2017. Gender equity insights 2017: Inside Australia’s
gender pay gap (No. GE02). Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre (BCEC), Curtin Business
School.
Dore, E., 2017. Diversity and Multiculturalism in Today’s Classroom. In Feather Boas, Black
Hoodies, and John Deere Hats (pp. 175-180). Brill Sense.
Dwyer, K.M., Clark, C.J., MacDonald, K., Paraskeva, M.A., Rogers, N., Ryan, J., Webster, A.C.
and Wong, G., 2017. Gender equity in transplantation: A report from the Women in
Transplantation workshop of the Transplantation Society of Australia and New
Zealand. Transplantation, 101(10), pp.2266-2270.
Hickman, M.K., Ozuem, W. and Okoya, J., 2019. Gender Fluidity in the Age of Technologically
Mediated Environments: Implications for Fashion Industry. In Gender Economics:
Breakthroughs in Research and Practice (pp. 135-174). IGI Global.
Klettner, A., Clarke, T. and Boersma, M., 2016. Strategic and regulatory approaches to
increasing women in leadership: Multilevel targets and mandatory quotas as levers for cultural
change. Journal of Business Ethics, 133(3), pp.395-419.
O’Reilly, J., Smith, M., Deakin, S. and Burchell, B., 2015. Equal pay as a moving target:
International perspectives on forty-years of addressing the gender pay gap. Cambridge Journal
of Economics, 39(2), pp.299-317.

7CULTURAL DIVERSITY
Oakley, K. and Ward, J., 2018. The art of the good life: culture and sustainable
prosperity. Cultural Trends, 27(1), pp.4-17.
Schofield-Georgeson, E., 2018. Regulating executive salaries and reducing pay disparities: Is
pay disclosure the answer?. Journal of Australian Political Economy, The, (81), p.96.
wow2016cr.qreports.com.au. 2019. wow2016cr.qreports.com.au. [online] Available at:
https://wow2016cr.qreports.com.au/home/group-review/people-encouraging-diversity-
details.html [Accessed 13 Sep. 2019].