Despite recent progress in narrowing Australia’s gender pay gap, women still earn over 20% less than men in the private sector, with female CEOs facing an even wider gap, earning 25% or AU$170,000 less, than their male counterparts, new national data has revealed.
For the first time, the 2023–24 Workplace Gender Equality Agency’s (WGEA) report included the remuneration of highly-paid executives, including CEOs, heads of businesses, and casual managers. The latest calculation, provided a more accurate measure of the pay differences between women and men in the workplace.
The WGEA reported a 0.6 percentage point decrease in the overall gender pay gap, indicating a slight reduction in the pay disparity between men and women.
The current gender pay gap is 21.8%, meaning women earn 78 cents for every dollar earned by men, resulting in an average annual income difference of AU$28,425 less for women.
“This is the first time we’ve had this information, and it was a surprising result,” WGEA CEO Mary Wooldridge said. “It’s phenomenal.”
Wooldridge said the agency was aware that men make up 78% of CEOs in Australia, but they didn’t realize the large pay gap even among top-level executives, reported The Guardian.
“We think that that’s probably driven by – as the broader gender pay gap is – a combination of the industries that women are more likely to be leading … but also how those CEOs are valued in the role, even in industries where there’s predominantly men,” Wooldridge said.
The WGEA reported that 68% of employers conducted a gender pay gap analysis, highlighting efforts toward improving gender equality in the workplace. Of these employers, nearly 90% made the analysis in the past year, and three-quarters took action based on the results.
The prompt action came after new legislation was introduced last year, requiring companies with more than 100 employees to publish their pay gaps. The data was first released in February 2024.
The data also examined pay gaps by age group and found that men consistently earned more than women throughout their working lives, with one exception. The age group between 15 and 19 showed a 0.8% pay gap in favor of women. However, for all other age groups, the pay gap favored men.
In the age group between 20 and 24, pay disparity began at 2.6%, and increased with each age bracket, while peaking at 32.6% for those aged 55 to 59. The gap then declined slightly among older workers.
The analysis also looked at pay gaps across different states and territories. While all regions had a pay gap favoring men, Tasmania had the smallest gap at 12.5%, and Western Australia had the largest at 29.5%. The gap in WA was mainly due to the high number of well-paid mining jobs, which were mostly held by men.
Katy Gallagher, the minister for Women, welcomed the report on the reduced gender pay gap, which was the lowest since reporting began in 2014. “Our efforts to lift wages, especially in feminised industries, are having a real impact on closing the gender pay gap,” she said.
The share of employers providing paid parental leave, in addition to government leave, grew from 63% in 2022-23 to 68% in 2023-24. Meanwhile, the number of men taking primary carer leave increased by 3 percentage points to 17%, the highest rise since records began.
The government was also expected to introduce new legislation in Parliament this week, requiring organizations with 500 or more employees to set measurable targets for advancing gender equality in their workplaces.
