Employers urged to address stagnant gender pay gap

New figures have revealed many female employees are no better off than they were 12 months ago with Australia’s gender pay gap stalling at 22.8 per cent.

The latest annual data released by the Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA) on 12 December found the gender pay gap between Australian men and women stalled for the first time in 2022.

The gap of 22.8 per cent means women earned, on average, $26,596 less than men in 2021-22.

Agency director Mary Wooldridge said the stagnant gender pay gap must be a signal to employers to pick up the pace.

“At a time when Australia is experiencing a critical skills and labour shortage, WGEA’s annual Employer Census shows that too many employers have failed to step up on gender equality leaving many women no better off than they were 12 months ago,” Ms Wooldridge said.

“A pay gap of 22.8 per cent means women earn an average of $26,600 less than men, based on their gender. This failure to improve needs to be a clarion call for all employers.”

According to the WGEA findings, every industry in Australia has a gender pay gap in favour of men.

It is most prominent in the construction, financial and insurance services, professional, scientific and technical services, rental hiring and real estate services and information, media and telecommunications industries where the gender pay gap is above 20 per cent.

On the opposite end of the scale, there are certain industries where the gender pay gap has narrowed.

The administrative and support services industry made the most progress, reducing the gender pay gap with a 3.3 per cent reduction over 2021-22.

Proactive steps

Whilst the data shows stagnant results, the WGEA report noted there have been some measures put in place to address gender equality over the past 12 months.

For example, 53 per cent of employers have set some form of target to address gender equality.

Of these, 55 per cent have done so to increase women in leadership roles and 38 per cent have done so in order to reduce the gender pay gap.

“Lasting change requires employers to make bold, creative choices that send a signal to all employees that gender equality is a core part of their business strategy and a priority for those in leadership and managerial roles,” Ms Wooldridge said.

“Leading employers are already putting solutions in place that address challenges like workforce shortages by tailoring factory shifts around school pick-up and drop-off times or promoting – and role-modelling – flexible hours or part-time work arrangements among managers and executives.”

Ms Woolridge noted that employers can find and compare how their organisations are tracking on gender equality by utilising WGEA’s Data Explorer: www.wgea.gov.au/data-statistics/data-explorer

“This is a chance to measure how your organisation’s workforce composition and policies and strategies for recruitment, promotion and retention shape up against the competition,” Ms Wooldridge said.

“Because if you’re not making progress on these things, your employees will realise there are others who are.”