The Bill is designed to promote equality, fight discrimination and introduce transparency in the workplace by tackling the gender pay gap.

Dani Novick, Mercury Search and Selection managing director, said employment-specific actions will attract most attention, central to which are age discrimination and the gender wage gap.

However, she added the proposed increase in red tape and publishing of pay levels could potentially cause quite a bit of disruption.  

"There can be no doubt that the last thing businesses need in this climate is further regulation and bureaucracy," she said. "Ultimately, employees are only as secure as their employer's business."

Novick claimed that smaller businesses would be hardest hit by the Bill, because they tend to be less able to absorb these costs.

"As the majority of companies in the print industry are SMEs, the print industry could be disproportionately affected," she said.

However, Novick added that often government proposals of this nature create a storm in a teacup. "Everyone fears the worst, while in practice changes are often small; for example flexible working," she said.