Are we doing enough to close the gender pay gap?

Employers need to work harder if they want to completely close the gender pay gap, a government expert on gender equality in the workplace said.

Libby Lyons, director of the Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA), warned organisations not to become complacent in addressing the discrepancy in pay between working men and women.

New figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) show that men take home an average of $1,678 a week while women earn an average of $1,433. The difference of about $245 represents a 14.6% gap, which is slightly lower than the 15.3% last year.

While the WGEA welcomes the development, the agency reminded employers that there is still much work to be done to eliminate the gap.

“This improvement in the gender pay gap proves that actions speak louder than words,” Lyons said.

“If every employer in Australia did a pay audit, analysed the results and then took action, we would eventually consign the national gender pay gap to the annals of history.”

The ABS figures also showed that the average weekly earnings of full-time working women increased by 3.3%.

According to the WGEA, the gender pay gap is influenced by several factors, including:

• Discrimination and bias in hiring and pay decisions
• Women and men working in different industries and different jobs, with female-dominated industries and jobs attracting lower wages
• Women’s disproportionate share of unpaid caring and domestic work
• Lack of workplace flexibility to accommodate caring and other responsibilities, especially in senior roles
• Women’s greater time out of the workforce impacting career progression and opportunities