In good news for women in Australia, we’re only being paid a little bit less than men, on average. (Queue sarcastic, hooray!)
Yes, that is the news we excited about, with the gap getting slightly narrower this year compared to last.
In 2022, the gender pay gap was 14.1 per cent, and this year it is 13.3 per cent, which accounts for a 0.8 per cent decrease in the gap in just one year.
However, it is just 0.1 per cent less than the figure in January 2021.
It’s a trend that the Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA) calls ‘the right direction’, but the truth is that parity is still a long way off.
“As of November 2022, women’s average weekly ordinary full-time earnings across all industries and occupations are $1,653.60. Australian men’s average weekly ordinary full-time earnings are $1,907.10,” WGEA said.
“For every dollar on average men earned, women earned 87 cents. That’s $253.50 less than men each week.
“Over the course of one year, that 87 cents adds up to $13,182.”
These are the figures based on data coming out of the Australian Bureau of Statistics, however, the WGEA has another set of more encompassing data that includes bonuses, additional payments and overtime.
With these ‘perks’ factored in, the WGEA data shows that the gap sits at 22.8 per cent, the same as last year.
According to the WGEA, there is a difference between the ‘gender pay gap’ and achieving ‘equal pay’. The gap refers to the overall difference when salaries of men and women are averaged out, whereas equal pay is when women and men are paid the same for the same job in the workforce.
It is hoped the Albanese goverrnment’s new ‘name and shame’ rules around salary will help to create greater pay parity.
This new bill will mean that any business with over 100 employees will need to openly publish their company’s gender pay gap.
According to the World Economic Forum, Australia ranks just 43rd on the Gender Pay Gap Index, beaten by the likes of Iceland, Finland, Norway and New Zealand.
It is hoped that the country will improve its standards against other high income countries in time, but it does show that there is still a long way to go in pay culture for this country.
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