New data has revealed that women working in Australia’s private sector experience higher gender pay gaps than those working in the Commonwealth public sector.
Women in the private sector are only paid 77 cents on the dollar compared to men, according to the Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA). This compares to 88 cents on the dollar in the public sector– a figure just released by WGEA’s Commonwealth Public Sector Gender Equality Snapshot.
This is a result of a total remuneration gender pay gap of 22.8 per cent in the private sector and 11.6 per cent for this sample in the Commonwealth public sector.
The WGEA’s snapshot is based on voluntary reporting by 52 employees from the Commonwealth public sector. It’s the first set of WGEA insights on the sector’s performance on gender equality.
“What we can see from the 2022 Snapshot is an indication of overall trends that are likely to shape future reporting,” said WGEA CEO Mary Wooldridge.
“In this way, the Snapshot serves as an appetiser for policy makers, employers and the broader public to understand gender equality in the Commonwealth public sector.”
Wooldridge said the results were a promising indicator of workplace efforts to address gender equality but that more needs to be done.
“Policies like publicly-advertised salary levels, target setting, regular employee consultation and comprehensive access to paid parental leave help the public sector lead in workplace gender equality,” she said.
“However, these results also show that many of these policies have focused on women, rather than all employees. This is particularly the case for support for parents and carers. The result is that the uptake of paid primary carers leave by men is at a rate similar to the private sector (13.5 per cent in the public sector and 13 per cent in the private sector).”
To shift this dial on gender equality, Wooldridge points to changing gender stereotypes that continue to place unequal parental responsibility onto women– a cultural norm that acts as a barrier to women’s workforce participation.
“This Snapshot indicates some employers may still be approaching gender equality as a ‘women’s issue’,” she said. “However, meaningful change requires a focus on improving the workplace experiences of women and men.”
Beginning this year on 1 September, Commonwealth public sector employers with 100 or more employees will be required to report to WGEA on gender equality. This is a result of recommendations from the Respect@Work Report.
Wooldridge said this mandatory reporting will enable the WGEA to publish an annual Scorecard, similar to the private sector. The Scorecard will track progress on the gender pay gap and allow for comparisons of the Commonwealth public sector’s performance with the private sector for the first.
“For nearly a decade now we’ve used WGEA’s world-leading dataset to inform and drive gender equality change for women and men working in the private sector,” said Wooldridge. “Recent legislative reform means that for the first time we will add comprehensive insights on the Commonwealth public sector into the mix.”
WGEA also announced, over the weekend, that this year’s Equal Pay Day will take place on 25 August. This date marks the 56 additional days from the end of the previous financial year that women must work, on average, to earn the same amount as men.
Over the past four years, progress has been slow, with only a change from 59 days in 2019 to 56 days in 2023.