The gender pay gap might be narrowing but a report by the Workplace Gender Equality Agency says women in full-time work are paid on average $27,000 less than a man.
While the annual findings say that the pay gap has narrowed by 1.6 per cent and there are more women in senior positions those females at the executive level are being underpaid by $100,000.
The third year of data collected by WGEA covers over 12,000 employers and four million employees and among the key figures included in the scorecard today (with per centage point movement since 2013-14):
-Gender pay gap (full-time total remuneration): 23.1% (down 1.6 pp)
-Largest industry gender pay gap: Financial and Insurance Services: 33.5% (down 2.6 pp)
-Key Management Personnel who are women: 28.5% (up 2.4 pp)
-Employers with policies to support gender equality: 70.7% (up 4.5 pp)
-Employers who have conducted a gender pay gap analysis: 27.0% (up 3.0 pp)
-Appointments of women to manager roles: 42.6% (new data point)
WGEA Director Libby Lyons said the data highlighted persistent inequality, as well as progress.
“The data confirms gender pay gaps in favour of men in every industry and the under-representation of women in management and leadership roles,” Ms Lyons said.
“At the same time, it shows employers are stepping up to the challenge in greater numbers with proactive gender equality policies. For the first time, more than 70 per cent of employers reported they have policies in place to support gender equality.
“There’s no question we are seeing movement in the right direction, but it’s still too slow. The Agency will continue to work with employers to help them drive better workplace gender equality across their organisations.”
