Men are earning $26,000 more per year than their female counterparts despite increased efforts from employers to address pay gaps and gender imbalances, according to the latest report by the Workplace Gender Equality Agency.
In the fourth instalment of the WGEA’s annual report the gender pay gap sits at 22.4 per cent, which is a drop of 0.7 per cent from last year, while every industry and occupation across the country has a pay gap favouring men.
However, WGEA has noticed significant improvements in employers undertaking gender pay gap analyses and incentivising gender equality.
Employers conducting pay differential analysis was up 10 per cent at 37.7 per cent, while employers with manager KPIs related to gender equality was 28.4 per cent, up 5 per cent.
WGEA director Libby Lyons said the dataset covered more than 4 million employees, with 11,000 employers and showed strong improvement in employer awareness but the pace of change needs to increase.
“In Australia today, men still out earn women in every industry and across all occupations,” she said
“This is not about women’s choices: whether you are a manager, a scientist, a butcher, a baker or even a TV presenter, there is a gender pay gap favouring men.
“The sharp increases in employer action show that the momentum for improved gender equality is building. I am very encouraged that many more employers are now analysing their pay data for gender pay gaps and hopeful this will flow through to improved pay outcomes for women in the years ahead.
“Other positive developments include an increase in managers having KPIs related to gender equality and more women being appointed to manager roles.
“Unfortunately, the number of women on company boards remains static and too few organisations are reporting their gender metrics up to the board. We need to see some real change. Boards must take more accountability for gender equality.”
