Despite plenty of focus on the national gender pay gap over the past 12 months, new figures released today by the Australia Bureau of Statistics shows that the gap between men and women’s full time earnings has fallen only slightly since last year.
The gender pay gap now sits at 17.1%, down slightly from 17.5% as reported in August 2013. But it’s not all bad news as figures show that women’s earnings have increased at a higher rate than men’s over the past 12 months, from 3.5% compared to 3%.
Workplace Gender Equality Agency director, Helen Conway, said the persistent pay gap problem was concerning but was pleased that there is evidence suggesting that employers are taking steps to ensure their staff are paid fairly.
“This persistent pay gap is both concerning and frustrating. And sadly, there is a pay gap in favour of men in every single industry,” she said in a press release.
“It’s fair to assume employers don’t deliberately set out to discriminate between women and men, but many organisations simply don’t realise they have a gender pay gap,” Conway said.
“I say to organisations who think pay equity isn’t an issue for them, ‘how do you know?’. Unless you’ve analysed your payroll data, any assertion that you don’t have a problem is uninformed.”
While the pay gap fluctuates between sectors, according to ABS figures some of the highest gender pay gaps are now found in female dominated industries, including health care and social assistance, with the pay gap at 31.1%, rising 2.1% in 12 months.
Other industries to see a backwards trend in closing the pay gap include retail, hospitality and construction industries. While the financial and insurance services still record the highest pay gap at 31.9%, that figure has decreased slightly from 33.6% in 2012.
For more information on the latest gender pay gap figures, check out WGEA’s 2013 industry snapshop and interactive data centre.