WGEA study reveals the highest-paid men receive at least $162,000 more a year than Australia’s highest-earning women

The highest-paid men receive at least $162,000 more a year than Australia’s highest-earning women, a report says.

• Ceiling Smashers: The women who refused to take no for an answer

The highest-paid men receive at least $162,000 more a year than Australia’s highest-earning women, a report says.

The study, commissioned by the Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA), also warns female CEOs will have to wait another 80 years to achieve equal representation with male bosses.

Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre examined the gender pay gap across 4.1 million Australian workers, or 40 per cent of the nation’s workforce, in a range of occupations and industries.

Director of the Workplace Gender Equality Agency, Libby Lyons. Picture: John Feder/The Australian

It found that, among chief executive officers and other top-tier managers, the highest paid 10 per cent of men earn at least $598,745 in total salary.

By comparison the highest-paid 10 per cent of women earn $436,369, a pay gap of 27 per cent.

“At every management tier, the spread of salaries available to men is much wider and higher than those available to women, indicating an additional glass ceiling,” the report says.

Examining the gender balance in CEO roles, the report warns the “glacial” pace of change means “we will not see an equal share of women … until the turn of the next century”, or the year 2100.

Report author Associate Professor Rebecca Cassells said the findings showed that “simply breaking through the glass ceiling doesn’t provide women with the same wage opportunities”.

“Women still face an additional barrier,” she said.

WGEA director Libby Lyons lamented that only “children starting primary school this year will enter a workforce where they are likely to see gender balance at most management levels”.