Leaving aside the 0.7 per cent drop in the total remuneration gender pay gap, there are a couple of other data points in Australia’s Gender Equality Scorecard for 2024-25 to feel positive about.
To be clear, there’s still a 21.1 per cent gender pay gap in Australia when you account for total remuneration, according to today’s data from the Workplace Gender Equality Agency. It’s a figure that is unacceptable anywhere, but especially in a country where women have been graduating from university at higher rates than men for some years now.
Women are earning 78.9 cents for every $1 men earn, totalling a difference of $ 28,356 annually and accumulating into a lifetime of disadvantage.
The reason this total remuneration gender pay gap is so much higher than the National Gender Pay Gap (which recently hit a record low in August at 11.5 per cent) is that it takes into account discretionary payments like bonuses, allowances and overtime. Men are earning, on average, 60 per cent more than women in these payments. It’s a staggering gap. Employers must do more to ensure discretionary payments and overtime options are accessible to everyone, and to note the significant unpaid care imbalance. Employers must also audit their bonus processes to address bias.
But let’s look at the positives from today’s scorecard, especially the tiny upticks that represent a little bit of change.
A key standout is the rise in men taking primary carer parental leave, up 3 per cent.
Twenty per cent of primary/universal parental leave is now taken by men. This reflects government changes, the fact that more employers are offering such leave to men, and a slow cultural shift in which men feel comfortable taking it. The flow-on impacts could lead to a rapid uptick in the coming years. We know one reason men don’t take primary carers leave – and even secondary carers leave – is due to the stigma attached. But more men taking it on should indicate less stigma and more opportunities to come across male bosses and role models who are making the most of this primary carers’ leave. And more men are also seeking the option to take such leave when considering their next career moves.
A couple of other upticks are women taking on management roles, including 39 per cent of key management personnel, up 2 per cent from the previous year, and a 1 per cent increase in managers being women, now at 43 per cent.
But wow, decreasing the pay gap and seeing more women achieve leadership positions has been slow. With all that education, with all the alleged flexibility and opportunities for women being spruced by employers, and still we see pay and leadership gaps of this size?
Meanwhile, the rate of women CEOs has not changed: with women making up just 22 per cent of CEOs across the 8200 employers providing data, covering 5.4 million employees. The gender pay gap in CEO positions has increased over the past 12 months by 1.2 percentage points to 26.2 per cent, with women earning $83,493 less on average than men in base salary each year. Factor in superannuation, bonuses, overtime and additional payments, and the difference increases to a whopping $185,335.
And almost a quarter (24 per cent) of boards at these employers still have no women, seriously?