‘Serious consequences’: Big sign Australia still has a long way to go

It is 2025 and, while Australia has undoubtedly been moving forward as a country, we’ve just been hit with a glaring reminder of how far we still need to go.

There is no doubt that Australia has made significant advancements in the past few decades, however, there are still reminders that, even in 2025, there are areas where we have a long way to go.

Today is International Women’s Day, with the theme for this year’s campaign being ‘Accelerate Action’.

In many places around the world, we have seen promising progress in women’s rights and gender equality but, unfortunately, it is slow going.

At the current rate of global progress, it will take until 2158 – 133 years from now – to reach full gender parity, according to data from the World Economic Forum.

Gender parity refers to the equal contribution of women and men to every dimension of life, whether private or public.

Since 2006, 101 countries have been continuously covered in the Global Gender Index.

The World Economic Forum Global Gender Gap Report released last year, found that over the 12 months from 2023 to 2024, the gender gap closed by just 0.1 percentage point.

We shouldn’t have to wait five more generations to achieve gender parity, with the Accelerating Action theme calling for increased urgency in addressing barriers and biases that women still face.

In Australia, for every $1 a male full-time worker earns, a full-time female worker earns 78 cents on average.

The difference adds up to $28,425 a year, with around one third of the gap coming from financial incentives beyond base salary such as superannuation, overtime and performance bonuses.

In Australia, women earn 78 cents to the $1 compared to men, on average. Picture: iStock

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On top of this, new data from HR platform HiBob has found that men are being promoted at nearly twice the rate of women.

The findings come from the company’s Women in the Workplace report, which surveys 1000 men and 1000 women working in Australia.

For the first time since the annual research began four years ago, women’s confidence levels at work are now on par with men, with 96 per cent saying they are confident they regularly do a good job at work – up from 86 per cent last year.

But, despite this growing confidence, just one in four women said they received a promotion in 2024, compared to 41 per cent of men.

This is a glaring gap and, even more worryingly, indicates a six per cent drop in the number of women promoted compared to the previous year.

Comparatively, the number of men who received promotions increased by four per cent.

Mary-Beth Hosking, CEO of Women4STEM, is one of the many Australian women who have experienced being inexplicably passed over for a job or promotion.

The Melbourne local was working for a major transport company at the time and, due to a restructure, found herself in a position where she was required to reapply for her role.

Having never had any issues raised with her performance in the role and, in fact, being told the opposite from her employer, Ms Hosking wasn’t overly concerned about the reapplication process.

Despite this, she was ultimately passed over, with the job going to a man.

“I was very disappointed as I was doing the role already and had been performing it at a very high standard based on previous performance reviews,” the 55-year-old told news.com.au.

“I was not given feedback as to why I had not won the role and I was forced to move into a completely different business.”

Mary-Beth Hosking, CEO of Women4STEM, shared her own experience being overlooked in the workplace. Picture: LinkedIn

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From HiBob’s data, it is clear that the rise in confidence among women in the workplace isn’t translating to career progression, with customer success manager Sabrina Scherm saying if this trend continues there is a “real danger” that the gender pay gap will “never close” in Australia.

Speaking to news.com.au, Ms Scherm said this could also have “serious consequences” beyond the pay gap.

“The lack of career progression for women will lead to decreased job satisfaction, lower retention rates and a decline in overall workforce diversity at senior levels,” she said.

“To truly address this issue, organisations should not only promote gender equality but also implement policies guaranteeing fair and equitable career progression for all women, regardless of their level.”

Ms Hosking has also found herself in a situation where she realised there was a pay disparity between herself and her colleagues working at the same level.

When she entered into her first chief information officer (CIO) role she discovered she was being paid less than her peers in similar roles.

After finding this out, she went straight to HR and requested they benchmark the role against the current market, which, ultimately, determined she was being underpaid.

“This simple question can save a lot of time and heartache and it doesn’t get people off side,” she said.

Thankfully, in Ms Hoksings case, the situation was able to resolved with little fuss, but it isn’t always that straightforward.

Just one in five Australian employers have an average gender pay gap in the target range of -5 per cent and +5 per cent.

Men are being promoted at nearly twice the rate of women in Australian workplaces, new research has found. Picture: iStock

This year’s report from the Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA) includes results from 7800 individual employers and 1700 corporate groups.

In women-dominated industries, the midpoint of average gender pay gaps is 5.5 per cent. This increases to 13.2 per cent in gender-balanced industries and 16.1 per cent in male-dominated industries.

WGEA CEO Mary Wooldridge said for employers that haven’t made any progress in terms of lessening the gap, it is time to ask “why”.

On a positive note, the 2025 report showed an increase in the number of employers working to understand what is driving their gender pay gap, beyond equal pay.

“Over the past year, employers have told us that publication of employer gender pay gaps is a catalyst to assess gender-based differences in all areas of their workplace,” she said.

“For men, a more equal experience could mean their employer is providing access to paid parental leave, paying superannuation on that leave and actively supporting a flexible return to work from parental leave.

“For women, it could mean their employer is redesigning manager roles that will enable those roles to be undertaken on a part-time basis or as a job share.

“This action can create new pathways to career progression for employees with caring or other responsibilities outside of work, or by actively broadening the pipeline of talent across occupations and job roles.”

Originally published as ‘Serious consequences’: Big sign Australia still has a long way to go