Australia’s Westpac will now let you openly talk about your salary at work

Curious about how much your colleague makes? Well, at Westpac, a major Australian bank, all you need to do is ask, and you shall receive. More specifically, though, the bank said that moving forward, there won’t be a pay confidentiality clause in employee contracts and the clause in existing contracts won’t apply.

The motivation? In Australia, men are twice as likely to be highly paid than women, and so the hope is that with more open lines of communication, gender biases will become a thing of the past.

Key comments:

“More broadly, the past two years has seen increased visibility and awareness of important issues including gender equality, women’s economic security and women’s safety,” said Christine Parker, group executive for human resources. “There is more to do, but we’re encouraged by the current conversations and willingness to engage.”

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