Women earn 78¢ for every $1 a man earns, WGEA data confirms

The 2023–24 gender pay gap results have been released today (4 March) by the Workplace Gender Equality Agency, showing that half of Australian employers have a median gender pay gap larger than 8.9 per cent.

The release of the gender pay gap statistics for the 2023–24 period has revealed that nearly three in four (72 per cent) of all Australian employers pay men more, on average, than women – with men taking home $28,425 more on average per year.

The findings – as required by the Workplace Gender Pay Equality Act 2012 – found that for every $1 a man earns, women earn 78¢ on average. It was found that of the employers listed in the data – high-earning employers are far more likely to have a larger gender pay in favour of men.

In terms of comparison to the previous dataset, 56 per cent of employers improved their gender pay gap over the last 12 months. However, 79 per cent still have a gender pay gap outside of the targeted range of +/- 5 per cent.

“Each employer has a unique set of circumstances that impacts the size of their gender pay gap,” said WGEA chief executive Mary Wooldridge, speaking on the data.

“Where an employer’s gender pay gap is beyond the target range of +/-5 per cent, it indicates one gender is more likely to be over-represented in higher-paying roles compared to the other. This can be a sign of structural or cultural differences for one gender within an occupation, organisation, or broader industry.

“For employers that haven’t made progress, it’s time to ask why and dig into the data to find out what’s causing any gender differences and use evidence-based solutions to address them.”

Gender pay gap by industry

Industry-wise, construction, mining, and electricity, gas, water, and waste services were among the four industries where over 90 per cent of its employers pay men more on average than women. However, they were also categorised as male-dominated fields with higher-than-average remuneration.

The fourth of that group, financial and insurance services, is included in the gender balanced category along with rental hiring and real estate services and professional scientific and technical services. Financial and insurance services, however, are known to have a much higher average remuneration than other industries – a factor for why their gender gay gap is so high despite it being gender balanced.

For each of these gender-balanced industries, women workers were far more likely to fall into the lower pay quartile than the upper pay quartile.

For women in these industries especially, the pathway towards a promotion or higher-ranking position could be laced with systemic barriers, thus preventing them from attaining a salary range that falls into the upper quartile category.

Lack of women in higher roles

Speaking to HR Leader, Wooldridge explained some of those factors and barriers and how they may affect women workers in professional services especially.

“It’s a real range of things and, once again, it’s often unique to industries and unique particularly to individual employers. Let me give you a few ideas, and particularly in the professional services area, it can be a passage of time. You know, people argue, ‘Well, all our partners have worked for 20 or 30 years, they’ve got the most senior level, and they’re all men. We’re now trying to get more women through, but they have got to do their time,’” she said.

“Some of it is promoted by time rather than through the actual work that has been done, the contribution that’s being made, the capacity that’s being built, and the value that’s being added. Sometimes, that can equally be easily done by someone who is new to the senior ranks as it is to someone who has been there a long time.”

The other thing is that there’s often an issue with retention. In professional services, we see recruitment often happens in a balanced way. However, at the senior level, women aren’t retained at the same level.

“So genuine questions about why that is, what’s driving the decision making of women not to stay in that environment? Is it something about the structure of the work? Is it how they’re valued in the workplace? Or is it something else driving that means people aren’t staying? And what can you do to change that? How can you remove those barriers [that drive] people to leave?” Wooldridge said.

Wooldridge continued by mentioning the family context that often impacts women workers.

“The third one I’ll mention is also the capacity to balance both family and parenting responsibilities with the demands of work and being able to put in place flexible working arrangements,” she said.

“Sometimes, women are not able to work full-time, but most of the senior roles are full-time roles. We get a lot of feedback from women who say, ‘I’m working at a much lower level than I am capable of because my organisation doesn’t have a culture that supports being able to work in a way that’s flexible at the more senior level.’

“So, how can jobs be redesigned to support you? Realising the full range of the population, rather than just a portion of it, and allowing them to also manage their competing responsibilities.

“That might be job sharing, it might be working part-time at senior levels, it might be adjustment of expectation on working hours, or whatever it might be in that individual context. So, we do see the limitations on being able to work in a flexible way at the most senior levels as a big inhibitor to women being in the highest earning group.”

Reflection on the data

Despite the crux of the issue still residing among a large number of Aussie employers, Wooldridge was optimistic about the results and the progress.

“It’s promising to see the big increase in the number of employers working to understand what is driving their gender pay gap, beyond unequal pay,” she said.

“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.”

Wooldridge broke down the benefits that this research and collection of data have for both men and women in the workplace.

“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,” she said.

“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.

“What is common to each is purposeful action that breaks down traditional notions of what it means to be a worker and carer in the contemporary workplace.”

Kace O'Neill

Kace O'Neill is a Graduate Journalist for HR Leader. Kace studied Media Communications and Maori studies at the University of Otago, he has a passion for sports and storytelling.