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A systematic review of migrant gender pay gaps: implications for Australian organizations and human resources management practices

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posted on 2025-01-16, 00:53 authored by Xiaohui Jiang

Gender equality and global migration have attracted ample attention amongst the leaders of various countries and organisations around the globe. Immigrants form a critical part of Australian society as 30% of Australia's population were born outside of Australia (ABS, 2024). After decades of initiatives and efforts from the Australian Government and organisations, including improving legislation, the Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA, 2024) reported a 21.7% gender pay gap in November 2023 based on Australia’s average total remuneration, which includes all payments received and annualised full time equivalent salaries of part time and casual staff from eligible organisations. However, less data is available on migrant pay gaps as the data reported is generic in nature without further categorization of immigrant status. In addition, the articles published in top tier journals mostly feature gender pay gap or migrants’ labour market experience, rarely combining the two. The lack of statistics and research created the necessity for a systematic review to understand the current state of migrant gender pay gap issue in Australia. This thesis aims to identify gaps between Australia and other countries on migrant gender pay gaps and explore the barriers to gender equality and provide insights to organisations and Human Resources Management practice by conducting an analysis on relevant legislations through a “Systematic Literature Review” of existing studies on this focal area. This thesis identified gaps in Australian legislation and studies compared to the rest of the regions, and systematic barriers experienced by female migrants, including gaps in legislation, the “double negative” effect of being a woman and a migrant, employment challenges migrants experienced due to various reasons such as location and background, discrimination, and perception from existing workforce of being a threat. This thesis also found a growing body of research exploring the effect of COVID, which disproportionately affected female migrants because they are most vulnerable to loss of employment and income. In conclusion, the implications of the research findings are discussed to provide insights to organisations and Human Resources Management practices, including reviewing and improving various policies and practices to reduce migrant gender pay gaps.

History

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 Introduction: gender and migrant pay gaps in Australia -- Chapter 2 The state of migrant gender pay gap: background literature -- Chapter 3 Method: a systematic literature review -- Chapter 4: Findings -- Chapter 5: Conclusion -- References -- Appendix 1: Literature details undertaken for the SLR

Awarding Institution

Macquarie University

Degree Type

Thesis MRes

Degree

Master of Research

Department, Centre or School

Department of Management

Year of Award

2024

Principal Supervisor

Alison Pullen

Additional Supervisor 1

Meena Chavan

Rights

Copyright: The Author Copyright disclaimer: https://www.mq.edu.au/copyright-disclaimer

Language

English

Jurisdiction

Australia

Extent

101 pages

Former Identifiers

AMIS ID: 389375

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