The gender pay gap is closing but men still earn more than women
More women won management promotions last year but men were paid extra to work as bosses, pocketing $91,000 more than their female colleagues, but there is a glimmer of hope for females battling to be paid the same as males.
MORE women won management promotions last year but blokes were paid extra to work as bosses, pocketing $91,000 more than their female colleagues.
A new Federal Government analysis of Australian wages reveals that women are edging closer to pay parity, after the “gender gap” closed at the fastest rate on record in 2017/18.
But men still take home $25,717 more than women for a year’s work, on average, the Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA) has revealed in a new pay analysis of 4.1 million workers.
Men earn 21.3 per cent more than women in full-time work across all jobs – including overtime and bonuses.
Even on a base wage, women earn $15,457 or 16.2 per cent less than men for full-time work.
The gender pay gap closed by 1.1 per cent during 2017/18 – the fastest rate since the WGEA began its analysis four years ago.
But men earn more than women in every industry – even the female-dominated sectors of health and education.
WGEA director Libby Lyons said men were more likely to be in high-paid management roles, while women worked in lower-paid jobs.
“We have to focus on getting more men into those caring roles and getting more women into management,’’ she said.
Ms Lyons said “bias and discrimination’’ against women was to blame for one third of the pay gap.
The latest data shows that women won 43.3 per cent of management jobs during 2017/18 and now account for 39.1 per cent of managers – up from 36 per cent four years ago.
But male managers earn up to 24 per cent more than female bosses – averaging $91,000 a year extra for top managers in 2017/18.
Senior male managers earned an average of $42,499 more than female managers while junior male managers earned an extra $32,112.
The pay gap is smallest among clerical and administrative staff, where men earn $6531 a year extra – an 8.3 per cent gap – and in community and personal services, where men earn $6936 extra – a 9.5 per cent gap.
The worst industry for women’s pay parity is financial and insurance services, where men earned an average of $27,353 more in base pay – a 23.1 per cent gap.
In health care and social assistance – where women make up 80 per cent of workers and 70 per cent of managers – men still earned an average of $12,509 more in base pay – 14.4 per cent more than women.
Originally published as The gender pay gap is closing but men still earn more than women