Gender pay gap is narrowing, but ‘momentum’ must continue

The Workplace Gender Equality Agency has revealed Australia’s latest gender pay gap to be the lowest on record.

Workplace Gender Equality Agency chief Mary Wooldridge.

Australia’s workplace equality watchdog has urged employers to maintain momentum in closing the nation’s gender pay gap, with fresh data revealing the difference in average weekly earnings between men and women is the lowest on record.

Workplace Gender Equality Agency chief Mary Wooldridge said while the latest gender pay gap had dropped to 13.3 per cent, it was at a similar level to what it was in January 2021, at 13.4 per cent, before it increased in the past three years.

“We are back where we were three years ago … since then, we lost the momentum and stalled.

“We need to maintain that momentum to continue to reduce it (the gender pay gap) over time,” Ms Wooldridge said.

The gender pay gap is calculated by WGEA from Australian Bureau of Statistics average weekly earnings data and on Thursday it reported women – across all industries and occupations – earned an average weekly ordinary full-time salary of $1653.60.

It compared with the average weekly ordinary full-time salary of $1907.10 earnt by men, leaving a difference of $253.50 a week.

For every $1 men make on average, women earn 87c.

Ms Wooldridge said the gender pay gap was likely to be bigger than 13.3 per cent because it does not include bonuses, overtime payments or superannuation.

She also said the total remuneration gender pay gap was consistently 5 per cent more than the gender pay gap for base salaries alone.

According to research WGEA conducted with KPMG, over the past 10 years there have been three factors that consistently contribute to the gender pay gap.

The factors are: discrimination and bias in recruitment; the time that women take out of the workforce to have or care for families, which can lead to reduced salary and superannuation; and the fact that women tend to work in ­industries or in roles that are paid less.