The federal government’s Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA) published its Employer Gender Pay Gaps Report on Tuesday, containing the combined results of annual reports from 10,500 employers. The report revealed only a slight increase in the number of women in highly paid roles and identifies three key areas where progress can accelerate.
Whilst the analysis in the report is based only on private sector employers, the data in the spreadsheet that populates the WGEA Employer Data Explorer now includes Commonwealth public-sector employers for the first time.
Overall, only 22.5% of employers reported having a gender pay gap in the target range (i.e. -5% to +5%). 50% of employers still having an average total remuneration gender pay gap larger than 11.2%, and a gap of more than 29.7% on discretionary payments such as bonuses, overtime and extra superannuation. Predictably, male-dominated industries have the highest discretionary payment gender pay gap and also made the least progress on closing those gaps over the past year.
Although a significant part of gender pay gaps is driven by discretionary payments only 24% of the employers who conducted a pay gap analysis took any action to review performance structures to ensure there was no built-in bias.
32% of employers did not conduct any type of analysis to find the causes of their gender pay gap. Without any information on where the differences between women and men occur it is much harder for employers to take effective action.
Despite men and women being evenly represented in the total workforce capture by WGEA’s reporting, the employer provided data also shows that men are 1.8 time more likely than women to be employed in upper quartile roles (paying an average of $221,000), with women being 1.4 time more likely than men to be employed in lowest quartile roles (with an average salary of about $60,000).
“The fact that men are nearly twice as likely as women to be in the highest paid roles and that women still dominate the lowest paid roles should offer a reality check for anyone who thinks Australia has achieved equality in the workplace,” WGEA chief executive Mary Wooldridge said.
The key priorities identified in the report fall into three categories:
- More employers need to conduct a comprehensive analysis of pay and composition in their workplace - analysis shows where gender impacts outcomes and where further analysis and focus is likely to result in narrowing the pay gap over time. The more detail an employer can review on pay, occupations, promotions, recruitment and resignations, experiences of parental leave and sexual harassment the better equipped they will be to address the issues within their specific workplace context. Employers could accelerate progress on closing their gender pay gap by conducting a more detailed gender pay gap analysis. Of the 68% of employers who conducted a gender pay gap analysis, 24% did a ‘comprehensive analysis’. This is a detailed analysis and therefore the most likely to uncover the areas of significant inequality between women and men. Some leadership teams are still only looking at instances of unequal pay, which is illegal and must be immediately corrected. Unequal pay can be a driver of the gender pay gap, but there are many others that should be assessed to ensure a workplace is fair for everyone
- Workplace leaders should choose actions to improve fairness that are based on the analysis and supported by evidence - employers could accelerate progress on closing the gender pay gap by using the information from their gender pay gap analysis to create an action plan. Of the employers who conducted a gender pay gap analysis only 20% developed an action plan and 19% developed a strategy to address workforce composition issues.
- Employers must set targets to improve accountability and measure progress - gender equality targets often see organisations achieve faster and more effective progress because targets drive accountability, momentum, objectivity and transparency. But few employers are using targets to drive change. Only 27% of employers have a target to reduce the gender pay gap and 30% of employers set targets to increase the number of women in management positions. Legislative changes commencing in 2026 will require employers with 500 or more employees to select and meet gender equality targets or demonstrate improvement over 3 years.
Often, the psychosocial hazards of discrimination, exclusion from training, or promotion and policies being applied inconsistently also feed into a workplace safety culture that contributes to creating a gendered pay gap. A proactive approach to identifying and eliminating or managing those hazards as guided by the OHS Psychological Regulations and the accompanying Compliance Code must be a part of employers’ pay gap action plan.
With an overall reduction of just 0.9 percentage points in the mid-point of average total remuneration gender gaps, it is clear that Australian employers still have much work to do to achieve the gender equity we deserve.
Read more: WGEA | Employer Gender Pay Gaps Report 2024 - 2025