Gender Pay Gap

The new national gender pay gap for the six months to May 2020 is 14.0%. This year, Equal Pay Day will be on 28 August 2020, marking the 59 additional days from the end of the previous financial year that women, on average, must work to earn the same as men earnt that year.

The Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA) announced today that the national gender pay gap has remained stable at 13.9%, a drop of just 0.1 percentage points over the last six months.

Although all industries have gender pay gaps in favour of men, the actual dollar amounts vary widely between industries.

The large differences between the total remuneration and base salary gender pay gap in the Financial and Insurance Services, Construction and Rental, Hiring and Real Estate Services industries suggest additional payments such as bonuses and commissions are a factor.

All industries have a gender pay gap in favour of men

Financial and Insurance Services remains the industry with the highest total remuneration gender pay gap at 29.3%. However, it has decreased year-on-year since 2013-14.

Rental, Hiring and Real Estate Services has replaced Construction as the industry with the second-worst gender pay gap at 26.9%. The gender pay gap in the female-dominated industry of Health Care and Social Assistance barely shifted, declining by just 0.2pp (up 1.2pp from 14.7% in 2015-16 to 15.9% in 2018-19).

Gender pay gaps favour men across all levels of the workforce

Every manager category and non-manager occupation also shows a gender pay gap favouring men for full-time employees.

Gender pay gaps are influenced by a range of factors including non-salary benefits such as bonuses at senior levels, reliance on awards and collective agreements in some occupations and the concentration of women and men in different industries.

The gender pay gap has increased in two of the four manager categories over the past 12 months with the largest increase occurring in the Other executives / general managers category. There has also been an increase in three of the seven occupational categories. The occupation with largest increase in its gender pay gap this year was Community and personal services with a 2.1pp increase.

More employers than ever recognise the importance of looking at their own data when seeking to improve gender equality within their four walls. Workplace Gender Equality Agency (‘WGEA’) data showed that in 2018, 40% of organisations conducted a gender pay gap analysis.

The Workplace Gender Equality Agency (‘the Agency’) has relaunched one of its most utilised resources: the gender pay gap calculator. The Agency has developed the gender pay gap calculator to assist employers to identify and analyse the causes of gender pay gaps within their own organisation.

To mark this year’s [Un]Equal Pay Day on 28 August 2019, the Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA) has calculated the date of each Australian state and territory’s [Un]Equal Pay Day.