Australia’s gender pay gap has narrowed slightly but women are still paid nearly a fifth less than men, with the finance, mining and construction industries showing the biggest differences, a government report found.
The Workplace Gender Equality Agency survey also showed that 72.2 per cent of employers had a gap favouring men while 21.3 per cent had a gap within the target range of +/-5 per cent. The rest had a gap that favoured women.
The median pay gap for the year to March 2024 was 18.6 per cent in favour of men, compared with 19 per cent in the previous year. Some 56 per cent of companies reduced their pay gaps.
“Where an employer’s gender pay gap is beyond the target range of +/-5 per cent, it indicates one gender is more likely to be over-represented in higher paying roles compared to the other,” the agency’s Chief Executive Mary Wooldridge said.
Large listed companies with big pay gaps in favour of men included the country’s top investment bank Macquarie Group with a gap of 41.8 per cent and gas producer Woodside with a gap of 25.6 per cent. Woodside showed an improvement from 30.2 per cent a year earlier while data was not collated for Macquarie previously.
The large gaps remain despite both companies having female chief executives.
