What is the gender pay gap?
The gender pay gap is the average difference between the remuneration for men and women who are working.
What causes the gender pay gap?
The gender pay gap is influenced by a number of factors, including:
- Women have more time out of the workforce impacting career progression and opportunities
- Women are more likely to work part-time due to caring and other responsibilities
- Women do a disproportionate share of unpaid caring and domestic work
- Female-dominated industries and jobs tend to attract lower wages
- Workplaces lack flexibility to accommodate caring responsibilities, especially in senior roles
- There is discrimination and bias in hiring and pay decisions
How big is the gender pay gap in Australia?
The official WGEA gender pay gap is 20.8%. That means the average woman earns 20.8% less than the average man.
The average Australian woman retires with one-half the retirement savings of the average man.
In financial services, the average woman earns 26.2% less than the average man.
At firms like Barclays & Deloitte, the average woman earns 43% less than the average man.
Only 8.6% of CEOs are women and only 6.8% of corporate boards have more than 40% women.
Most gender pay gaps are reported as “adjusted” pay gaps. This adjustment treats part-time work as if it was full time work and makes the pay gap appear smaller than it actually is. (Lean Seek has a full explanation of how gender pay gap statistics can be misleading).
It’s not just unfair, it’s bad for the economy. It’s bad for everyone.
What are the benefits of achieving gender pay equality?
- It is ‘fair’ and ‘the right thing to do
- It improves national productivity and economic growth
- It increases your organisational performance
- It enhances the ability of your company to attract talent and retain employees
- It enhances your organisational brand and reputation