Shocking gender pay gap figures revealed

A damning report has laid bare the true gender gap in salary and professional positions seen across Australia last year. The extensive analysis covered over 4000 Australian companies.

Women were paid $25,800 less than men last year, according to a damning report which also reveals men are twice as likely to earn at least $120,000 and one in five boards have no female directors.

Australia’s annual gender equality scorecard, to be released by the Workplace Gender Equality Agency on Friday, shows the gender pay gap shrunk by 0.5 per cent to 22.8 per cent last year and narrowed in four out of 10 companies.

But women still only earned $7.72 for every $10 paid to men. One in three women earned less than $60,550, putting them in the bottom 25 per cent of all workers, while a third of men earned at least $120,000.

Only 20 per cent of chief executives were women, creating an executive-level pay gap that will take a whopping 80 years to close at the current rate of progress.

Agency director Mary Wooldridge said: “From the very top down, women are undervalued in Australian businesses and under-represented where decisions are made.”

“There need to be clear pathways for women to work in the right line roles so they can take the next step to leading organisations,” she said.

Lawyer Jesse Kemelfield, office worker Cat Lever, yoga instructor Treasure Dupuy, doctor Peter Leonello and ambulance worker Sarah Adamson. Picture: Calum Robertson

The agency’s analysis covers 4744 Australian companies with at least 100 staff, representing 4.2 million workers.

The pay gap was as high as 30.6 per cent in construction and 29.5 per cent in financial and insurance services, while it was only 4.8 per cent in public administration and safety and 6 per cent in accommodation and food services.

Even in the healthcare and social assistance industry, where 79 per cent of workers were women, the gender pay gap was still 14.4 per cent.

Ms Wooldridge said that nearly half of employers who audited their pay rates took no action because they believed the gender gap was “explainable or justified”.

“However, just because a pay gap is understandable doesn’t mean it’s right: action can and should be taken,” she said.

Overall, 60 per cent of women had part time or casual jobs, compared to just one in three men.

The report also showed that three out of four company boards were male-dominated, with at least 60 per cent male directors. Of those boards, just 12 per cent actually had targets to increase female representation.

Ms Wooldridge said that was despite research showing having more woman in leadership positions led to “better company performance, greater productivity and greater profitability”.

In 2020-21, women made up 41 per cent of all managers — up from 36 per cent in 2013-14 — and received 47 per cent of manager-level promotions.