Gender Pay Gap Results
The Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA) has released the latest insights and trends from workplaces across Australia on the status of pay equity. This year, data was collected prior to the global COVID19 pandemic. It marks the 7th year of mandatory reporting under the Workplace Gender Equality Act 2012.
Approx. 4.3m million employees’ data was collected for this report. This equates to 40% of the Australian workforce, which is the largest dataset to date. Comparing the results from this year’s report to the previous year, we see a range of positive and negative trends.
Key insights include:
- A slight decrease (0.7%) in the Gender Pay Gap since the last collection
- The Gender Pay Gap across all industries is currently 20.1%
- Men still take home on average $25,534 per annum more than Women
- Women comprise 39.9% of all managers, with 44.7% of manager appointments in 2019/2020 going to Women
- Marginal increase to Female representation on Boards, i.e. currently 28.1%, which is a 1.3% increase
- The proportion of Female CEOs also increased marginally by 1.2% to 18.3%
- Organisations analysing pay data increased (up 1.7% to 46.4%)
- Employers taking action to close the gap saw a significant reduction (down 6.1% to 54.4%)
Libby Lyon (Director WGEA) calls on businesses to “embed gender equality as a business priority”. There are tangible business benefits to embedding gender equality in organisations. These include increased employee engagement, retention and a more powerful EVP for potential candidates. Of course, the social benefits and doing what is right and important for community are also strong motivators. It is essential for Australia’s economic recovery that businesses continue to address gender pay equity issues and close the gap.
The full WGEA 2019-2020 Gender Pay Gap Results report can be accessed via the Agency’s website.
An overview of the results is also available via the WGEA YouTube Channel.
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