Women consistently report lower levels of workplace wellbeing than men, a new 2024 Workforce Trends Report shows, highlighting how gender inequality is continuing to hold women back at work.
The annual report provides a Workplace Wellbeing Index, which is essentially a barometer for how Australian employers are tracking in creating positive, safe and effective workplaces for employees.
Now in its third year, the index shows men consistently report more positive sentiment across key metrics, while female workers reported the largest gap between ‘importance’ and ‘satisfaction’ across all Australian workplace remuneration areas, more than double compared to males.
Looking closer, the results showed this gap between ‘importance’ and ‘satisfaction’ are in base salary, incentives and employee benefits. This reveals that individuals are likely focused on the financial aspects of their personal and professional lives, given the rising cost of living pressures.
This trend is more evident for women than men, who report more than double the gaps across all workplace remuneration areas (i.e. base salary -33 per cent vs -17 per cent for men, incentives -32 per cent vs -16 per cent for men, and employee perks at -26 per cent vs -11 per cent for men).
The report’s survey is produced by Gallagher, a global insurance, risk management and consulting firm. It’s based on the insights of 2,499 full-time, part-time, and casual employees across Australia making it the largest report of its kind nationally.
“The finding sheds light on the importance of efforts needed to close the gender pay gaps,” said Laura Bennett, Senior Consultant at Gallagher.
“Tackling the gender pay gap in a continued challenging economic climate with sustained cost of living pressures is both an area of challenge and opportunity for all Australian employers.”
The ‘executive blind spot’
Survey findings show that executives and senior leaders report more positive workplace wellbeing compared to team members.
For senior leaders and executives, 63 per cent report positive wellbeing, 72 per cent report positive engagement and 83 per cent report an intention to stay with the company.
Meanwhile, 51 per cent of team members report positive wellbeing, 53 per cent say they’re engaged and 65 per cent say they intend to stay.
“Similar to our 2023 report, there is a clear disconnect between the experiences of executives and team members,” researchers state, in reference to what they call the ‘executive blind spot’.
“If they can see past their own experiences, executives may be able to better understand the need for wellbeing programs at their organisations and meet their obligations to provide a workplace in which all staff members can thrive.”
This is particularly evident for organisations with a substantial gender imbalance within their executive leadership team. A majority of male executives (64 per cent) reported being satisfied with their personal finances, in contrast to just 45 per cent of female executives.
And when it comes to flexibility, a significant 70 per cent of female executives place importance on the ability to work from home, compared to just 53 per cent of male executives.
The 2024 report also found that employees are looking for family building and fertility support from their workplaces. This can take a variety of forms, from reimbursements (egg /sperm freezing, IVF/IUI treatments, adoption, or surrogacy expenses), leave to attend treatments, on-call support and on-demand education.
Men and women placed equal importance on this benefit, and approximately a quarter of employees reported having access to some form of it.