Key Points
- The median gender pay gap across the nation is 19 per cent, according to the Workplace Gender Equality Agency.
- Construction, mining and trade services had the highest pay gaps between men and women.
- The gap is wider in sectors that rely heavily on pay bonuses and overtime.
An Australian working woman is paid almost 20 per cent less than her male peer, receiving around $18,000 less per year than what a male colleague is paid on the job.
At the same time, over 3000 Australian companies had a gender pay gap in favour of men.
These are some of the findings of a new report from the Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA), which, for the first time, has published the gender pay gaps for private sector employers with 100 or more employees.
The Australian-first publication of employer gender pay gaps is intended to help close the gender pay gap by boosting pay gap transparency.
The largest gender pay gap in favour of men was 73.1 per cent, from a not-for-profit NSW health care service with less than 500 employees.
A disability services provider in South Australia had the largest gap in favour of women at –444.8 per cent.
The WGEA, a federal government agency, found the median gender pay gap across the nation was 19 per cent, based on employee's total remuneration — which includes base salary, superannuation, overtime, and bonuses.
That means, over the course of a year, the median of what a woman is paid is $18,461 less than the median of what a man is paid. If calculated on base salary only, a woman if paid $11,542 less than a male colleague.
Worst industries for gender pay gap
In every industry across the country, the median of what a woman is paid is less than the median of what a man is paid, the report found.
The lowest gender pay gap was in the accommodation and food services industry, at 1.9 per cent.
The gender pay gap worsened significantly for industries with a greater reliance on bonuses and overtime — in these sectors, which include transport, postal and warehousing and electricity, gas, water and waste services, the size of these payments more than doubles the gender pay gap.
Over 3000 companies had a gender pay gap that favoured men - which means they paid men more than women.
Gender pay gap is lower in female-dominated industries
The WGEA report said that there is a link between having a woman as a CEO and a lower gender pay gap.
The mid-point of employer gender pay gaps for employers with at least one woman CEO is 5.4 per cent compared to, 10.9 per cent for employers with no women CEOs, it said.
The agency found employer gender pay gaps were lower when the proportion of women in management was higher.
Employers with this gender-balance in management are twice as likely to have a neutral gender pay gap as employers with 0-20 per cent women in management, the report said.
Government says gender pay gap 'lowest on record'
Before the report's release, Employment Minister Tony Burke, pointing to separate Australian Bureau of Statistics data from last week, said the gender pay gap was now "the lowest it had ever been on record" at 12 per cent. He said it averaged 15.4 per cent under the previous Coalition government.
"It hasn't happened by accident or by coincidence. It is because of a deliberate design feature of this government wanting not only wages to get moving but to, for it to happen in a way that the gender pay gap is closing," he told federal parliament on Monday.
