There’s a staggering $100,000 pay gap between the salaries of male and female top-tier managers across Australian organisations.
That’s according to a comprehensive report on gender pay gaps released today by the Workplace Gender Equality Agency, in collaboration with Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre.
The report uses data provided to WGEA by reporting organisations to analyse gender pay gaps across occupations, industries and management levels.
The $100,000 pay gap between men and women in full-time key management personnel positions was the most alarming pay gap identified, but it also found concerning gaps across other areas of the workforce. All such gaps lead to women paying a ‘career-long’ penalty, amounting to an end-of-career difference of $600,000.
Interestingly, the report hints that a so-called lack of women in the pipeline is not the problem when it comes to those who have access to big salaries. It found that managerial gender pay gaps in male-dominated industries are smaller than those in female-dominated industries.
But in bad news for the promotion of flexible work, the report found that part-time roles, when analysed on a full-time equivalent basis, are significantly lower paid than full-time roles.
For those who question why so much prominence is given to the rate of women on boards, this data is also revealing. It finds that equal representation of women of boards results in a 6.3% point reduction in the gender pay (compared to organisations with zero women on their boards).
Below’s a list of key findings, as outlined in the report. The full report is available at WGEA.
There’s a $100k pay difference in the salaries of top-tier managers
The WGEA data shows an average total remuneration of $244,569 for women at key management personnel (KMP) levels, compared to $343,296 for men. Gender pay gaps are significant across all management categories and grow in accordance with seniority.
Gender gaps see women pay a career-long penalty
The report finds that if women and men move through managerial positions at the same pace, working full-time and reaching a KMP role in their tenth year, men can expect to earn $2.3 million and women $1.7 million in base salary over this period – a difference of $600,000.
It pays for women managers to work in male-dominated industries
Female managers are more likely to be remunerated closer to their male peers if the managerial environment is heavily male-dominated, conversely male managers working in female-dominated organisations can expect to earn considerably more than their female colleagues.
Female Board representation narrows the pay gap
Increased representation of women on Boards is associated with significant reductions in gender pay gaps. Increasing the share of women on Boards from zero to equal representation is associated with a 6.3 percentage point reduction in the gender pay gap for full-time managers and 7.8 percentage point reduction for part-time managers. Gender pay gaps in male-dominant organisations fall more than those in female- dominant organisations when female Board representation rises.
Women remain under-represented on Boards, with the data showing just under one in five Board directors and one in eight Board chairs are women; and nearly four in ten organisations have no female representation on their Boards.
Not all pay gaps favour men
Gender pay gaps are highly variable when looking at part-time employees. The average part-time gender pay gap when assessed at a base salary level is -4.4% (the negative sign indicating the gap is in favour of women). The part-time gender pay gap across industries ranges from -43% to 23.2% when the base salary measure is used, and even more widely from -60.5% to 29.5% when total remuneration is used.
Pay gaps in favour of part-time women tend to be concentrated in low-paid occupations and industries, with the part-time pay gap reverting to favour men as roles become more senior and highly paid. Overall, part-time roles are dominated by women and significantly lower paid (on a full-time equivalent basis) than full-time roles.
Part-time and casual data inflates gender pay gap
Including part-time and casual along with full-time pay data inflates the overall gender pay gap. A full-time equivalent (FTE) gender pay gap of 23.1% is evident across all employees at a base salary level, increasing to 27.5% when taking into account total remuneration including superannuation, overtime, bonus payments and other discretionary pay. This compares to a gender pay gap for full-time employees of 19% on base salary rising to 23.9 % on total remuneration.
The male ‘bonus’ premium
Both women and men receive additional remuneration beyond their base salary, which can include superannuation, bonuses, share allocations, allowances, overtime and other discretionary pay. However men consistently earn more additional remuneration than women. Women working full-time are paid an average additional 18.1% of their base salary in extras and men an additional 25% of their base salary.