If you’re female and over 31 you’ve already hit peak pay, according to a new report on the gender gap released this week.
If you’re male, you may have a few extra years: with the average man hitting his peak pay at age 39.
In fact, the average woman starts her full-time career on almost 12% less than her male counterparts, and will spend her lifetime falling further behind on earnings.
If she takes maternity leave, her pay will drop 12%.
This is the gender pay gap that never ends and simply gets worse for a woman as she gets older, and the more career breaks and stints of maternity leave she takes.
Based on 2011 Census data as well as new research, the Westpac International Women’s Day Report report finds the gender gap is worth a massive $123.4 billion a year. It starts to go downhill with the average $34,400 women take home with their first full-time role (compared to $39,000 a man receives) and continues from there.
Indeed, pay inequity starts event younger than when a woman’s ready to start work.
A separate report released this week by the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) finds that girls are receiving an average 11% less in pocket money than boys.
The ACTU also found that 40% of single women retire into poverty and that 60% of women aged 65 to 69 have no superannuation.
According to Westpac’s Inclusion and Diversity head Ainslie van Onselen, we must work to achieve gender parity if we are to boost the wider economy and contribute to growth, investment, savings and national wealth.
She says we need to have consistent discussions across business, government, the community and within our families regarding how we can help to close the gap. “We’ve got the numbers; we see the opportunity, now let’s start to accelerate the outcome.”
Interestingly, there’s one finding from the Westpac report indicating where women can hope to narrow at least some of the gap. Women taking an education-related career break see their pay increase an average 18%.
Below are some of the key takeouts from The Westpac International Women’s Day Report:
· Women earn on average 11.9% less than men when starting their fulltime careers
· Women see an average 12% drop in pay after taking maternity leave
· A career gap taken for education purposes increases a woman’s salary an average 18%. If she takes this at age 28, she’ll earn an additional $268,538 over the course of her lifetime. Even factoring in the income loss due to time off work ($63,693) the dollar cost of education ($14,346), this is a net lifetime gain of $190,499
· The average Australian mother has her first baby at 28, the same age when the average woman earns $49,644. If she takes the average 13.4 month maternity leave break, it will cost her $367,231 over her lifetime when factoring in the $63,240 in income lost over that period, as well as the $303,991 in future income due to her salary differential
· 60% of women never ask for a pay increase, compared to only 46% of men.
· Men are more likely ask for a higher salary increase (on average $1,816.83 more) but women are more likely to get the full amount requested when they ask
· Women have a lower rate of employment: Just 63% of women aged 18 to 67 are employed compared with 74% of men.
· An additional 740,282 women would enter the workforce if the rate of employment was equalised
· · The gender earings gap is worth $123.4 billion a year