There’s an average $27,000 a year that separates men and women working full time, according to new data released by the Workplace Gender Equality Agency covering 40% of all employees in Australia.
That amount would be enough to purchase a great new car, or make up a sizeable chunk to put towards a home deposit.
Despite the big headline figure, the data released this week shows few surprises on the state of pay equity in Australia – other than the fact we’ve actually made a little bit of progress on the pay gap.
We know the gender pay gap is a major issue in Australia. We know it’s hurting the productivity and efficiency of the workforce. We know it’s pushing women, who see work as something too expensive to do, out of the workforce. And we know it’s seeing women retire with significantly less retirement savings than men. We know it’s a contributing factor pushing women into poverty.
The problem is that we also know we’re nearing the end of 2015 and are yet to make significant progress on this issue.
The good news, at least, is that employers are finally removing the blinkers and realising that even if they believe pay equality must exist within their organisations because they simply don’t discriminate against women, a pay gap can still be present.
WGEA found that the number of employers with a gender equality strategy has grown to 20.6% this year, up from 18.3% last year. It also reported an increase in the proportion of employers undertaking gender pay audits, introducing flexible working strategies and implementing domestic violence support initiatives.
The 24% pay gap that WGEA identified covers full-time remuneration, including bonuses, allowances and superannuation, across the 12,229 organisations audited.
It’s a gap that we should all be frustrated to see is still occurring, but one that individual employers can ultimately seek to address.
Meanwhile, the WGEA data also revealed the latest figures on women in leadership: Women make up 15.4% of CEOs; 27.4% of key management personnel; and 36.5% of all management categories. So what can be done? Read our analysis here.
Other key industry findings from the data:
- The financial and insurance services sector still records the highest gender pay gap: at 35%
- Women hold three out of four part-time roles
- Only 6.3% of management roles are part time, with 22.7% of non-management roles being full-time.
- 25.1% of organisations have no women in key management personnel positions
- 60.2% of employers have a flexible working policy and/or strategy
- Women make up 23.6% of directors on boards
- Employers offer an average 11 weeks paid primary carers’ leave, and eight paid days for secondary carers
- 81.5% of employers now offer management training on sexual harassment.
- 34.9% of organisations have a domestic violence policy or strategy
- 16.1% of organisations have established gender targets for their boards.