The Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA) in Australia have published their findings on the employer gender pay gap reports for the 2023-24 financial year.
The new figures show that on average women take home $30,000 less than men do annually. Moreover, nearly three quarters of Australian employers still have a gender pay gap that favours men.
One shocking figure came from Qantas Airways Limited, which is a prominent airline in Australia. The company is made up of 44 percent women, yet there was a 41.2 percent pay gap between men and women. The WGEA’S chief executive, Mary Wooldridge, highlights that this type of statistic indicates that men are being over-represented in higher paying roles compared to women.
“This can be a sign of structural or cultural differences for one gender within an occupation, organisation, or broader industry,”
This statement rang true for the airline where only 12 percent of female staff at the airline were in the top bracket for take home earnings. Furthermore, at Qantas airline 7.5 percent of pilots are women, and when compared to the global industry average of 4 percent, would indicate that other Australian airlines may face the same, if not worse, pay disparities.
The publishing of the report has forced companies to look inward at their culture, and how they promote gender equality, particularly regarding the gender pay gap. Many industries are highlighted as having extreme pay disparages, including banking and finance, mining and media.
‘News Limited’, which owns Sky News Australia parent company, had an overall gender pay gap of 10.2 percent.
The figures are extremely startling, and this is made even more shocking by WGEA noting that the findings show that 56 percent of employers have reduced their gender pay gap in the last year. This highlights that in previous years, figures have been even worse.
Mary Wooldridge has suggested that the changes are actually positive, and that a 56 percent reduction shows that many employers are taking the differences seriously.
Naming the companies, she also believes has made a massive difference; previously, WGEA would create an anonymised report, meaning employees couldn’t see the performance of their particular employer.
Furthermore, there was a rise in employers conducting a gender pay gap analysis on their pay and composition, aiming to find out what is driving these gaps.
Some main indicators that cause this massive pay disparity were noted online by the WGEA. They suggest that certain factors such as men holding more senior roles, caring responsibilities falling to women, and industries dominated by women being valued and paid less than industries dominated by men; are all significant factors in the gender pay gap.
The Australian Minister for Women, Katy Gallagher, has suggested that key legislation is currently being considered in parliament that would help speed up the much needed reduction of the gender pay gap.
