Gender pay gap

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Gender Pay Gap

A gender pay gap measures the difference between the average earnings of women and men, expressed as a percentage of men’s earnings. It is the difference between what men and women get paid, on average, across organisations, industries, and the workforce as a whole.

The gender pay gap is different to equal pay which is where women and men are paid equally for performing the same role, or different work of equal or comparable value.

The WGEA dataset includes gender pay gaps by industry and by manager category and non-manager occupation. It includes superannuation, bonuses and other additional payments. Gender pay gaps across the WGEA dataset are an indicator of women’s overall position in the workforce and do not compare like roles.

Gender pay gaps are influenced by a number of factors including discrimination and bias, women and men working in different industries and jobs, women’s disproportionate share of unpaid caring and domestic work, the under-representation of women in senior roles, lack of workplace flexibility and women spending a greater time out of the workforce.

All gender pay gaps are based on full-time employees only, excluding CEOs.

Base Salary Gender Pay Gap: 15.5%
Total Remuneration gender pay gap: 20.8%

Gender pay gaps continue downward trend

Base salary and total remuneration gender pay gaps have declined year-on-year since 2013-14.

2019 Scorecard - Chart 4 GPG over six years

Gender pay gaps by manager category and non-manager occupation

Gender pay gaps favour men across all levels of the workforce

Every manager category and non-manager occupation also shows a gender pay gap favouring men for full-time employees.

Gender pay gaps are influenced by a range of factors including non-salary benefits such as bonuses at senior levels, reliance on awards and collective agreements in some occupations and the concentration of women and men in different industries.

The gender pay gap has increased in two of the four manager categories over the past 12 months with the largest increase occurring in the Other executives / general managers category. There has also been an increase in three of the seven occupational categories. The occupation with largest increase in its gender pay gap this year was Community and personal services with a 2.1pp increase.

2019 Scorecard chart 5 - Manager gender pay gap

Gender pay gaps by industry

All industries have a gender pay gap in favour of men

Financial and Insurance Services remains the industry with the highest total remuneration gender pay gap at 29.3%. However, it has decreased year-on-year since 2013-14.

Rental, Hiring and Real Estate Services has replaced Construction as the industry with the second-worst gender pay gap at 26.9%. The gender pay gap in the female-dominated industry of Health Care and Social Assistance barely shifted, declining by just 0.2pp (up 1.2pp from 14.7% in 2015-16 to 15.9% in 2018-19).

2019 Scorecard table 1 - Gender pay gap by industry

Gender pay gaps by industry – average $ amounts

Although all industries have gender pay gaps in favour of men, the actual dollar amounts vary widely between industries.

The large differences between the total remuneration and base salary gender pay gap in the Financial and Insurance Services, Construction and Rental, Hiring and Real Estate Services industries suggest additional payments such as bonuses and commissions are a factor.

2019 Scorecard table 2 - gender pay gap difference between base and total rem