An Australian woman earns less than 87 cents for every dollar a man makes. That’s right, 87 cents for every dollar a man makes. That’s a 13.4% gap in payment in our country, in 2021. Meaning a woman must work over 58 extra days a year to earn a man’s annual salary.
The gender pay gap (GPG) is defined as the average difference between women and mens’ full-time salaries, expressed as a percentage of men’s average earnings. To put the earlier numbers into context, in Australia, a womans’ weekly salary is on average 13.4% lower than a mans. Though statistics provided by Australia’s Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA), stated that in 2021 the total remuneration gender pay-based gap is far higher than this at an astounding 20.1%. This means that when over 4 million wages are collated and analysed, men are still making 20.1% of over $25,500 more than women every year.
While the gender pay gap has fallen since a peak of 18.5% in 2014, Australian working women are still earning far less than their male counterparts. In fact, Australian women earn less than men in practically every industry from a huge 25.4% GPG in technicians to an absurd averaged of 20% GPG in all white-collar management positions.
Shockingly, a research paper published in the ABC found that at current rates, Australia will take around 50 years to reach equal pay. It has been found by the WGEA that the key driving forces behind Australia’s gender pay gap come from varying sociocultural factors. Some of the key reasons causing the GPG in Australia are:
1. Expectations of traditional gender-based roles in society; female dominated industries and occupations like teaching, cleaning and food services offer far lower pay than average. ‘Female’ jobs are unvalued in society despite being crucial to keeping the country moving. Additionally, far more women take time out of their careers to raise children when compared to men.
2. Conscious and unconscious bias when hiring and promoting women. With far more men in senior positions than their female counterparts. The bias and discrimination are likely caused by traditional gender roles which can be traced back through history. A prime example of this is the fact that of Australia’s top 200 listed companies, only 10 have female chief executive officers.
3. Lack of workplace flexibility: far more women take time out of work for parental leave and caring responsibilities. This impacts female career progression and is a large cause for the high number of women working part-time or casually compared to men.
So with the economic vulnerability, and unfair GPG still very alive and ongoing in Australian society, what are businesses and the Federal Government doing to curb the issue and reach wage equality?
Since ‘joining’ the traditional men’s workplace the Second World War, women have been gradually working towards better pay, with the Australian Government introducing “equal pay for equal work” ruling in 1969 and the removal of the ‘breadwinner’ component of wages being removed in 1974 as more Australian woman began providing for their families. These 2 acts help to establish the reasoning that men and women performing the same job with equal skills should be paid the same rate. As time progressed, the Government also implemented the Workplace Gender Equality Act in 2012 which pushed harsher legal consequences for proven cases of gender-based discrimination in the workplace.
So looking forward, Australian companies are also working to create change in the workplace, with the WGEA finding that in 2019: 46.4% of corporations conducted gender pay gap analysis, and 54.4% of them took action as a result of these findings. While this is definitely a step in the right direction, a mere 43.1% of corporations setting objectives to reduce the GPG in their workplace isn’t going to solve the problem… yet.
So what can we as members of Australian society do to help reduce the GPG and its adverse effects on the people and economy of our country? We can firstly ensure we view people based on their skills and knowledge rather than their gender, next we can bridge equality by taking away career-based gender expectations from children at a young age, and finally, we can all try to be consciously aware of our choices surrounding gender in school and the workplace in order to reduce bias and the Australian gender pay gap.
Overall closing the gender pay gap will benefit Australian society and the economy as a whole, as we work towards people being paid for the effort they put in, not the gender they were born into. It’s time Australia does more to create gender equality.
For more reading, please visit the WGEA page and reliable news sources like the ABC for news about the gender pay gap and other Australian workplace issues.
Bibliography (in order of information’s appearance):
First few pieces of information and dollar to dollar comparisons 2021:
Information about business and industry gender pay gaps and other data analysis:
More information about the causes and detrimental impacts of the gender pay gap:
History of GPG in Australia: