Display Tender DPC 23-24-027 

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The 2022-23 State Budget allocated funding over two years to:

• promote gender pay equity workplace initiatives
• support the functions of Equal Workplaces Advisory Council (EWAC)
• for relevant research.

The EWAC is supported by Industrial Relations Victoria (IRV), the Victorian Government’s lead agency for developing industrial relations policy and initiatives in Victoria. IRV currently sits within the Department of Premier and Cabinet.

For the financial year 2023-24, the EWAC has identified research that can be undertaken to provide a basis for addressing unequal pay and workplace barriers for Victorian women and refresh the EWAC’s Action Plan 2023-24 accordingly.

One of these projects is to undertake a firm level analysis of the gender pay gap.

IRV is seeking a university affiliated academic research provider to undertake this research project.

This proposed research project would seek to investigate and understand how decision-making at the firm level responds to cultural norms and impacts firm level progress on pay equity and gender equality. This is expected to involve a multidisciplinary approach drawing on diverse fields including behavioural economics, organisational psychology, sociology, and organisational theory.

The project would involve a literature review and an analysis of organisations to learn about their past approaches to the gender pay gap, why they are doing something to address it now (or not doing something), and what contexts and drivers might be informing their approach to change.

The project would look at firms in industries with differing gender pay gap levels, to understand why gaps might be bigger in certain organisations and why they are smaller in others.

The project would seek to understand and draw insights from both high and low performing firms (potentially using Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA) data as a way of identifying both types of organisation). The project would look at key drivers and contexts of high and low gender pay equity outcomes including the factors that have contributed to the organisation’s performance on the gender pay gap, for example:

• the gender composition of the workforce and/or the gender composition of the Board/Senior Executives/Management
• the presence or absence of gender equity principles and/or a gender equality strategy and/or policies
• firm size
• industry sector
• location
• proportion of employees who are trade union members
• workplace culture and diversity, equity and inclusion policies/practices
• flexible working policies
• secure vs insecure work.

The project would seek to identify the key drivers to firm-level action (and inaction) to address gender pay inequity, including the extent to which having women in decision-making leadership positions influences gender pay equity action and outcomes.

The project seeks recommendations from the research providers that identify practical workplace and industry policy solutions that could be implemented in Victoria to encourage firm level gender pay equity action and a reduction in the gender pay gap.

A particular focus of the project is ensure that research findings are relevant to policy and program development to address unequal pay and workplace barriers for Victorian women.

The project would involve a desktop research/ literature review stage to gather existing data/ resources and identify gaps in knowledge, including a lack of Australian research.

The project would also involve primary quantitative and qualitative data collection from individual organisations and decision makers and analysis of these data. This may include:

• WGEA data
• Household, Income and Labour Dynamics (HILDA) Survey data
• Interviews, focus groups with key informants
• Annual reports and ABS data

The project is to be completed within 2023-24 financial year.

Communication and queries: 

please contact Hugh Horsfall, Principal Policy Adviser, Industrial Relations Victoria on [email protected] 

The last day to submit queries is 5 pm Friday, 15th of December 2023. 

The tender close date:

All tenders must be submitted online by the closing time Thursday, 5pm, 21st of December, 2023