PS women earn $8200 a year less than men

Fifty per cent of public sector employers have a gender gap below 4.8 per cent.

Mary Wooldridge, chief executive of the Workplace Gender Equality Agency. Picture: Martin Ollman/NewsWire

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Women in the public sector earn on average $8200 a year less than men, according to landmark analysis of public sector pay gaps by the Workplace ­Gender Equality Agency.

The WGEA’s examination of 120 public sector employers and two corporate groups found that more than half had reduced their gender pay gap in the past 12 months.

According to the WGEA data, the median total remuneration gender pay gap was 11.3 per cent at the CSIRO; 9.8 per cent at the ABC; 8.6 per cent at Australia Post; and 4.8 per cent at the Australian Taxation Office.

The median gap at the Australian Federal Police was 12.2 per cent; 11.5 per cent at the Reserve Bank; 1.9 per cent at SBS; and 1.3 per cent at NBN Co.

About 50 per cent of public sector employers have a gender gap below 4.8 per cent, a point known as the employer gender pay gap mid-point. The private sector mid-point is 8.9 per cent.

Across all employees in the public sector, the average total remuneration gender pay gap is 6.4 per cent, compared to 21.1 per cent in the private sector.

WGEA chief executive Mary Wooldridge said nearly half of the employers in the sector still had a gender pay gap in favour of men, and while they were often smaller than the private sector, as evidenced by the 4.8 per cent mid-point gap, “this does nevertheless show that work still needs to be done to improve ­gender balance in both pay and composition”.

Ms Wooldridge pointed to payments above base salary, which the report showed was a key contributor to the gender pay gap.

The value of payments above base salary including overtime, performance bonuses and superannuation added $5373, or 3.6 per cent, to the gender pay gap, indicating they offered more ­financial reward to men than women.

“Releasing public sector gender pay gaps for the first time today places a spotlight on these employers, like it has done in the private sector. This enhanced transparency and accountability is a catalyst for further action,” Ms Wooldridge said.

She said the results pointed to how progress can be achieved when employers use long-term and deliberate actions that address gender equality.

“The commonwealth public sector has achieved gender balance in the composition of the workforce, at managerial level and in the upper quartile of remuneration,” she said.

“This is a critical driver of the lower gender pay gaps reported today. The results also show that employers are taking action to improve equality in their workplaces.”