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The gender pay gap remains an obstacle to economic equality in South Australia. Women continue to earn less than men, affecting their financial security, career opportunities, and long-term well-being. Closing the gender pay gap will improve the lives of women across South Australia.
On average, for every dollar men earn in South Australia, women earn just over 90 cents. This means women earn about $190 less per week than men, adding up to $9,412 less per year. The report shows that South Australia’s gender pay gap is currently 9.8%. While SA has the third smallest pay gap in Australia, it has grown by 1.8 percentage points since the Taskforce started in 2022.
The Taskforce is made of representatives from government, business, and gender equality experts. Sarah Andrews MP, Chair of the Taskforce, said their work focused on understanding why the gender pay gap exists and identifying solutions to close it.
Over the past two years, we have done a lot of research and put together a report that explains the complex reasons behind South Australia’s gender pay gap, Andrews said.
The Taskforce focused on:
The report found three main reasons why women in South Australia earn less than men:
Abbey Kendall, a Taskforce member and CEO of the Working Women’s Centre Australia, explained the impact:
The gender pay gap negatively affects women’s lives and the economy. Women in South Australia earn less, save less for retirement, and are less likely to be in leadership roles. Over time, this leads to more financial stress, housing instability, and poverty for women as they get older.— Abbey Kendall, CEO of the Working Women’s Centre Australia
The report recommends three key areas for action:
1. Supporting Employers in South Australia
2.Improving Data and Research on Gender Inequality
3.Strengthening the Role of the Public Sector
Nikki Candy, Director of the Working Women’s Centre SA, emphasised the importance of the report:
This report confirms what we see every day—women in South Australia continue to face gender pay discrimination. To close the gap, we need action at every level.
With almost two-thirds of the workforce in small and medium-sized businesses, there is a real opportunity for change. At the Working Women’s Centre, we’ll continue to support employers by providing training and practical tools to address their gender pay gaps.
We will continue working towards a future where women receive equal pay and equal opportunities. — Nikki Candy, Director of the Working Women’s Centre SA
Research suggests that closing the gender pay gap could add $128 billion to the Australian economy. At a time when South Australia is facing critical skills shortages, failing to address this gap means missing a significant opportunity to drive economic growth.
The gender pay gap is not just a matter of fairness—it impacts the entire community and has wide-ranging economic and social consequences. Closing the gap would improve women’s economic security and independence while also reducing financial abuse and long-term poverty among women.
Our state has always been a world leader in gender equality and I want us to continue to lead the way in our shared efforts to close the gender pay gap, said Katrine Hildyard MP, Minister for Women and the Prevention of Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence.
For more information on the Gender Pay Gap Taskforce final report, visit the Office for Women South Australia or contact the Working Women’s Centre for workplace legal advice and training and resources on gender equality in the workplace.
Join us to march together on International Women’s Day for safety, equality and respect, in our workplaces, communities and families.
IWD is a day for working women and all who fight for justice and equality. Come and say hi to the Working Women’s Centre crew at the march!
On Saturday 8th March we’ll ‘March Forward’ starting at Tarntanyangga (Victoria Square – North End) at 10:30am.
The Welcome to Country will be by Aunty Elaine Magias, a proud Kaurna & Narungga woman and inspiring educator. We’ll then hear from the following speakers:
As we go marching, marching … we’ll march together north to the mall and then to Mukata (Hindmarsh Square) and close the march.
Come and say hello to the Working Women’s Centre crew (look for our t-shirts). We’ve got some shiny new badges to distribute with the message ‘Our silence is not for sale’.
We’re calling for law reform to end the misuse of Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDAs), so people can tell their story, on their terms. We can make workplaces safer by making sure workers aren’t forced to sign NDAs when they make a complaint about sexual harassment they’ve experienced.
The ‘Our silence is not for sale’ artwork is by artist Nicky Minus. You can check out her amazing work at the Gallery 3 Workers Art Collective.
Find details and accessibility information about the IWD march here. We can’t wait to see you there!
Workplaces should be safe places to work, but one in three Australian workers has experienced workplace sexual harassment in the past five years—a stark reality highlighted by the Fifth National Survey on Sexual Harassment in Australian Workplaces (AHRC, 2022).
This isn’t just a statistic; it’s a call to action for businesses to comply with Positive Duty requirements, improve their workplace culture, and offer a safer environment for their employees.
The Working Women’s Centre SA offers a tailored workshop designed to equip workers and businesses with the resources they need to meet legal obligations while fostering a respectful and inclusive workplace culture. The Respect the Line workshop provides the tools and knowledge needed to drive meaningful change.
Taking Action
The vast majority of people want to do the right thing—they just need the right knowledge and tools. Businesses have a responsibility to ensure their workplaces are safe spaces, free from harassment and discrimination.
Change is needed in all industries and every workplace. Both leaders and workers must play an active role in driving this change. Our Respect the Line workshop helps challenge outdated gender stereotypes and provides staff with the tools they need to prevent and respond to workplace sexual harassment.
Key Benefits of the ‘Respect the Line’ Workshop:
✅ Understanding Gendered Drivers: The workshop explores the root causes of sexual harassment, helping businesses create equitable and fair workplaces.
✅ Practical Strategies for Prevention: Participants will learn actionable techniques to effectively address and prevent workplace sexual harassment, ensuring a safer environment for all.
✅ Legal Compliance: With a focus on the latest Positive Duty legal requirements, organisations will gain the knowledge necessary to maintain compliance and protect employees.
The training is designed to meet the needs of diverse audiences, including small-to-medium businesses and male-dominated industries, ensuring that the content is relevant and impactful across various sectors.
Why Choose ‘Respect the Line’ workshop?
In addition to meeting legal obligations, the workshop fosters a positive workplace culture that contributes to employee well-being and organisational success. By participating in this training, businesses can proactively address issues before they escalate, reduce turnover, and improve overall workplace morale. We go beyond awareness-raising and tackle structural factors and changing attitudes.
Free Workshop Opportunities
To make this training more accessible, free workshop are available for eligible organisations. Priority is given to small-to-medium businesses in high-risk industries who demonstrate commitment to improving workplace culture.
Reach out to our Education & Training team to learn more.
Enquire now or contact our Education & Training officers:
📞 (08) 8410 6499
📧 training@wwc.org.au
Applications are OPEN for law students in their final or penultimate year of law school to work with our Client Services Coordinator and Legal Team.
Why Volunteer with Us?
The program is designed to train law student volunteers to undertake client intake and assist the legal team with appropriate legal tasks. We specialise in employment law issues, including discrimination and sexual harassment, and are committed to feminism, trade unionism, and workers’ rights.
By volunteering one day per week during the university semester, you will:
✔ Receive training in employment law and legal procedures.
✔ Gain hands-on experience in client intake and case management.
✔ Learn to draft legal letters and tribunal forms.
✔ Participate in professional development opportunities.
✔ Obtain a reference for future job applications.
What Will You Work On?
As a volunteer, you will:
✔ Assist with client intake—handling enquiries, booking appointments, and managing diaries.
✔ Monitor the client services inbox and coordinate document forwarding.
✔ Draft legal documents, including client correspondence and tribunal submissions.
✔ Conduct legal research, including case law and legislation analysis.
✔ Observe client interviews, advice sessions, and conciliation conferences.
We are seeking passionate and dedicated law students who:
✔ Can commit to volunteering one day per week for the university semester.
✔ Have strong oral and written communication skills.
✔ Are studying or have an interest in feminism and employment law.
✔ Have experience in customer service.
✔ Are committed to feminism and trade unionism.
✔ Can communicate confidently and empathetically with clients from diverse backgrounds, including those who have experienced distress or trauma.
What Our Past Volunteers Say
When asked about their experience volunteering at the Centre, here’s what our past volunteers had to say:
I was inspired to volunteer for the Working Women’s Centre because of my own negative experiences. Since then, I have become passionate about workers’ rights, advocating for equality, and creating a safe space for vulnerable groups in the workplace. Volunteering in this field has allowed me to align with my social justice values and positively impact the community by helping provide legal support to those who may not otherwise afford it.”
— Gabriella Candido, Law Student Volunteer, Semester 2, 2023
Reflecting on my time volunteering at the legal centre, the genuine warmth from everyone stands out. Everyone is so friendly, and it makes all the difference. I’ve also gained invaluable insight from sitting in on client meetings and attending mediations. Witnessing firsthand the legal challenges many women face has been an eye-opener.”
— Hayley Tan, Law Student Volunteer, Semester 2, 2023
2025 Law Student Volunteer Program
The deadline to submit your application is 20 FEBRUARY 2025.
We strongly encourage applications from First Nations peoples, people of colour, LGBTQIA+ individuals, disabled applicants, and survivors of gendered violence. We are committed to accessibility—please contact us to discuss any workplace adjustments you may require.
We are pleased to announce the commencement of our Law Student Volunteer Program for Semester 1, 2024, with the successful recruitment of two new volunteers, Lejla Cacvic and Suzy Jeong.
Both Lejla and Suzy make a wonderful addition to the centre, and we thank them for generously offering to volunteer their time.
Our volunteer program is overseen by our Client Services Coordinator, Sarah Devenport, and Lawyer, Angela Scarfo, who are both constant points of contact for our students, providing training and supervision in an ongoing capacity to enhance and foster growth in skills and confidence.
The program is designed to train law student volunteers to undertake client intake and assist the legal team with appropriate legal tasks.
Our program ensures that both Suzy and Lejla will experience a busy legal practice and be exposed to:
The law student volunteer program runs for the duration of the university semester and we expect the new intake of volunteers to commence shortly before semester two 2024.
This program is funded by the South Australian Attorney General’s Department.
(From left to right) Client Services Coordinator Sarah Devenport; new volunteers Suzy Jeong and Lejla Cacvic.
On 1 December 2023 the Working Women’s Centre SA hosted an event at Tadouni College in Port Adelaide on domestic servitude with keynote speakers Associate Professor Natalie Harkin and Elisabeth Lino de Araujo.
The event was attended by Kaurna, Ngarrindjeri, and Narungga Elders and activists, government officials, representatives of Aboriginal health, academics, union officials, APHEDA members, the Hon. Mira El Dannawi MLC, the Hon Steph Key, the Hon. Tammy Franks MCL and the Commissioner for Equal Opportunity, Jodeen Carney.
We received apologies from the Hon. Kyam Maher, Attorney General, the first Aboriginal Attorney-General in South Australia, as well as Minister for Aboriginal Affairs and Minister for Industrial Relations and the Public Sector. We also received apologies from the Hon. Katrine Hildyard MP, Minister for Women and the Hon. Natalie Cook MP, Minister for Human Services.
Associate Professor Natalie Harkin and Elisabeth Lino de Araujo shared their expertise, research and poetry on domestic servitude and advocacy of marginalised women. This event was an excellent demonstration of solidarity between Aboriginal and Timor Leste women as it presented the similarities between historical domestic servitude within our State, which makes up an under spoken element of Australia’s history, and domestic servitude that occurring in other parts of the world today, such as in Timor-Leste.
Associate Professor Natalie Harkin
Elisabeth Lino de Araujo is the founder of the Working Women’s Centre Timor-Leste (WWCTL) in Dili, Timor-Leste. From 2007 Elisabeth has worked as the Country Manager of Union Aid Abroad – APHEDA Timor Leste. Elizabeth presented on the incredible work that the WWCTL does, with a focus on advocacy for domestic and vulnerable female workers both in reaction to exploitation but in prevention. The Labour Code of Timor Leste was ratified by the Timorese Government in 2010, and the WWCTL has an outreach training workshop where they educate women on their rights at work in accordance with this legislation. We also heard Elisabeth present on another example of the fantastic advocacy of the WWCTL, on the proposed Special Law for Domestic Workers Bill in Timor Leste, which was drafted in 2017, and is awaiting promulgation. It was inspiring to hear about the WWCTL’s steadfast contribution to the formation of this Bill.
Associate Professor Natalie Harkin is a Narungga poet and Research Fellow at Flinders University living on Kaurna Yerta, South Australia. She engages archival-poetic methods to document community Memory Stories and is a member of SA’s inaugural State Records/State Library Aboriginal Reference Group. Her research centres on Aboriginal women’s domestic service and labour histories, and Indigenous Living-Legacy / Memory Story archiving innovations for our time.
Associate Professor Harkin presented on her research on historical domestic servitude of Aboriginal women and resulting stolen wages, of which the government in South Australia is yet to address. Further, she discussed the barriers in place for Aboriginal people to access their records through the State Archive today. An important underpinning theme of her work is the importance of the decolonisation of our state archives.
Leadlight artist and Narungga woman Sharene Vandenbroak kindly allowed the Working Women’s Centre SA to display her stain glass artwork at this event. Her artwork entitled ‘See Her Shining in the Sun’ was featured in the larger exhibition ‘APRON-SORROW / SOVEREIGN -TEA’ in 2021. Sharene’s set of gorgeous handmade stain glass windows depicting her strong female family members performing domestic labour received much praise and enhanced the story telling atmosphere of this event.
(Left to right) Associate Professor Natalie Harkin, Sharene Vandenbroak, Elisabeth Lino de Araujo, Anne-Marie Hayes, Nikki Candy, Abbey Kendall
Stolen Wages Work
The Working Women’s Centre SA organised this event as a result of meeting with multiple Aboriginal women and hearing their stories of work from the late 1950’s to late 1960’s. In acknowledgement of South Australia’s under recognised history of exploitation of Aboriginal workers, the WWC has been assisting several Aboriginal women to gain access to their records held in archives by the state government.
The racially motivated policies that existed in South Australia up until the 1970’s facilitated control and exploitation of Aboriginal workers. Resultingly, it was common for Aboriginal workers to not be paid, or to be paid small, intermittent amounts of money for the work they performed. The types of work that were common for Aboriginal workers to perform historically were domestic and pastoral work. The WWC is funded to provide legal advice to women and vulnerable workers, and in line with our funding, domestic servitude is feminised work. In a recent submission from the WWC to the state government on the proposal for South Australia to form a Human Rights Act, the WWC submitted to the inquiry that Aboriginal people should have the right to have timely access to records that relate to them. A copy of the WWC’s submission can be found here.
The WWC has been working with Associate Professor Natalie Harkin in advocating for archive accessibility and assisting Aboriginal women to request their own government records relating to their historical employment. This is often a lengthy process with multiple bureaucratic obstacles, which creates further barriers for Aboriginal people to access their own records relating to themselves and their families.
The WWC strongly supports and endorses the decolonisation of state records. Ensuring that Aboriginal people have timely and effortless access to their own records is an essential and crucial step towards truth telling and reconciliation of South Australia’s history of exploiting Aboriginal workers.
Other states and territories in Australia such as QLD, NT, NSW, WA and the NT have addressed historical stolen wages that occurred within their jurisdictions. South Australia is yet to address this issue.
The Working Women’s Centre SA would like to thank all who attended this highly successful event, and to further send a special thanks to both Elizabeth and Associate Professor Natalie Harkin for sharing their expertise. We look forward to continuing this collaboration and advocacy on these important issues with both Elizabeth and Associate Professor Natalie in the future.
The 16 June marks International Day of the Domestic Worker. You can read about Domestic Workers, here. We look forward to platforming domestic workers and both their historic and current rights in the coming year.
In a show of support and solidarity, the Working Women’s Centre attended the Bread and Roses / Bret Mo Roses album launch, spotlighting the courageous battle of a group of 12 migrant women, members of the United Workers Union, who are fighting back after surviving sexual violence in the glasshouses of Perfection Fresh company.
These women, known as the Perfection 12, have bravely taken their fight to the Federal Court of Australia, seeking accountability and systemic change at Perfection Fresh, a major supplier to Coles and Woolworths, for failing to provide a safe workplace for its employees, particularly women who endure sexual harassment and assault within its glasshouses.
The Bread and Roses album, featuring the voices and stories of the 12 migrant women union members, marks a significant moment in the ongoing struggle, particularly highlighting the sacrifices that seasonal workers make for their families and their isolation from their communities for years, as well as their pursuit for justice and safety in the workplace. The title track, Bread and Roses (Bret Mo Roses) is an old union song that has been adapted by the women to reflect their own fight for respect.
During her speech at the Semaphore Workers Club event, Caterina Cinanni, executive director of the United Workers Union, emphasised the urgency of their fight for change. “The Perfection 12 are brave women fighting for justice, respect, and safety not just for themselves, but for every single woman working in that glasshouse. Perfection Fresh is the wealthiest and largest tomato glasshouse corporation in Australia.”
Abbey Kendall, director of Working Women’s Centre, underscored the importance of safe workplaces for all workers “Seasonal work must be safe, regardless of their background, identity, or job type. That is the benchmark of Australian workplace laws,” she added.
As the Perfection 12 continue their legal battle, supporters can amplify their message by spreading awareness and advocating for accountability from companies like Perfection Fresh. The Bread and Roses album serves as a testament to their resilience and determination, inspiring solidarity, and action among all who seek justice in the workplace.
For more information on how to support the Perfection 12 and their campaign, visit Bread and Roses – Full Album – Rotten Perfection
Abbey Kendall, the Director of the Working Women’s Centre SA, and Caitlin Feehan, lawyer with the Centre, travelled to Canberra on Wednesday (31) to represent the organisation at the Senate Inquiry held at Parliament House. Their purpose was to provide evidence concerning the Australian Human Rights Commission Amendment (Costs Protection) Bill 2023.
The passage of this bill would eliminate the financial risk for women who have experienced sexual harassment and/or discrimination of having to pay the legal costs of their employer when pursuing their claims in the Federal Court. The current financial risk with taking these types of matters to Court is a known deterrent for women when considering whether to pursue their matters past unsuccessful conciliation. By this Bill being passed, it would provide certainty for women to pursue their matters without risking their long-term economic security.
Great work to all the organisations that attended the Senate Inquiry yesterday in support of this important proposed law reform!
