The gender pay gap is narrowing but at a glacial pace – closing by half a percentage point in 2020-21 – though some companies are working to make the disparity between male and female workers less stark.
Men are twice as likely to be in the top quarter of earners, at $120,000 and above, while women are 50 per cent more likely than men to sit in the lowest earnings bracket of $60,000 or less, according to data released by the national statutory monitoring body, the Workplace Gender Equality Agency.
Construction industry manager Rikki Toms is paid the same as her male colleagues at the engineering and construction company Laing O’Rourke – but that’s not the norm in her industry.Credit:Jason South
“Every industry has a gender pay gap in favour of men,” the report said.
Men are paid more than women, on average, by more than 85 per cent of Australian employers, and are also twice as likely to be highly paid than women, who earned $7.72 for every $10 men earned in 2020-21.
While the gender pay gap continued to fall slowly in 2020-21, women earned $25,800 less on average than men in total remuneration, a gap of 22.8 per cent, the report said.
Total remuneration includes include superannuation, bonuses and other additional payments.
Mary Wooldridge, the agency’s director, said the figures showed “an inching, incremental improvement”. But progress towards equal pay and representation of women in leadership remained “way too slow given the benefits we know gender equality brings men, women and communities, businesses and the economy as a whole”.
Among 4 million employees covered by the data, women are still concentrated in lower-paid industries such as healthcare and social assistance, education and training, while men are still concentrated in mining, electricity, gas, water and waste services, construction and manufacturing.
“Almost 1 in 3 women are in the lowest-paid quartile of full-time employees in Australia, while around one in three men are in the top earnings quartile,” it said.
The pay gap fell by just 0.5 percentage points in 2020-21, and men continued to dominate board and chief executive positions, and the full-time workforce, while women made up more of the part-time and “insecure casual workforce”. Women make up more than 50 per cent of the workforce, but comprise fewer than 20 per cent of chief executives and only 41 per cent of all managers (up from 36 per cent in 2013).
That 22 per cent of boards were all male, and three-quarters are made up of 60 per cent men, was concerning, Ms Wooldridge said.
“Leadership is significant: we know when there’s more women on boards and in senior leadership it drives greater gender equality through the entire organisation – it is so fundamental to all other aspects [of gender equality] and drives the gender pay gap and culture of organisations,” she said.
More than half of Australian employees work in industries dominated by one gender, and even “feminised” industries such as healthcare were found to be “lagging on action” to address pay gaps that favour men.
In healthcare, the gender pay gap was 14.4 per cent and in education and training it is 10.5 per cent – but these industries are also less likely to run gender pay gap audits or act to close the gap.
Overall, two in five employers narrowed their pay gap since 2020, but in the aftermath of the first wave of the pandemic, the gender pay gap widened at more than one-third (37 per cent) of employers.
While construction overtook financial and insurance services as the industry with the largest pay gap, with women in that industry earning, on average, 30.6 per cent less than men, some organisations are making a point of trying to even things up.
When Rikki Toms, a senior manager at construction company Laing O’Rourke, joined the industry nearly 30 years ago working at concrete quarries, “you’d always be the only female in the room and the only female in operational stuff.”
“Now it’s a world away, there are so many women engineers coming through … you visibly see the difference, and it’s not just in the back office,” said Ms Toms, a mother of two who oversees several aspects of Melbourne’s vast level-crossing replacement project.
“Even if you go back 10 years you were like the token female. Now every time I go on site I talk to a young 20-year-old engineer who’s just full of energy – you’re seeing an equal gender split of people coming through.”
Sam Mostyn, president of Chief Executive Women, described the data as a “wake-up call”.Credit:Alex Ellinghausen
Ms Toms’ employer cross-checks to ensure women are paid equally to male peers in similar roles.
“I’ve never seen it before, and I’ve worked at a lot of competitors,” she said. The process means she has sometimes received promotion-based pay rises far larger than she would have assumed.
Sam Mostyn, president of the women leaders’ group Chief Executive Women, described the data as “a wake-up call” and said “it is beyond time for action to close the gap”.
“We must set and measure targets for women in leadership to ensure better representation at decision-making tables around the country,” she said, urging employers to invest in retaining women mid-career.
Civil engineer Anna Thompson is among the women in construction who are on the same pay as their male colleagues.Credit:Edwina Pickles
“To ensure women’s progression to leadership, we must invest in mid-career retention of women in the workforce. Purposeful, accountable focus must be placed on flexible work and caring options for all employees, a critical time when women’s workforce participation and career progression often stall.”
Australia’s workforce is more gender segmented than other nations and women are often overrepresented in underpaid sectors. “Well-paid jobs in care industries will help close the gender pay gap,” said Ms Mostyn.
While the gender pay gap in construction grew by 2.5 percentage points since 2013-14, Sydney site engineer Anna Thompson agreed with Ms Toms that some firms were elevating women equally.
Having been the only woman on site when she started 20 years ago – and having arrived at her job to be told by the friendly office manager, “Oh, but we use the female toilet to store the mops and brushes, would you like me to clean it out?” – Ms Thompson said her progression was identical to male colleagues until she took parental leave twice in three years.
“I have had to work a bit harder to build that curve back up again, but I would say I have done so now,” she said.
The Morning Edition newsletter is our guide to the day’s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up here.
Most Viewed in National
From our partners
Source: Read Full Article