The gender pay gap inches closer to parity, but are managers doing enough?
.jpg)
Australian men still earn about $25,700 more than women despite the country’s gender pay gap falling 1.1 percentage points this year to 21.3%, new data showed.
This is the country’s biggest drop in pay disparity in the five years it has been measured. On average, men are earning more than women in every industry, occupation, and management category, the Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA) said.
“We can be proud of the fact it is trending in the right direction,” said Minister for Women Kelly O'Dwyer, who believes there is more to be done.
The gap would narrow further if gender-based roles were redefined and men given the opportunity to take time off to attend to their families, the minister said.
Organisations have started examining their own pay structure to determine and, ultimately, rectify instances of bias. However, 41.5% are yet to make any changes beyond pay analysis, the WGEA said.
“HR departments take the initiative to do a pay gap analysis, get the results, and are quite shocked by what they’ve seen, and fear taking it up the chain to the executives and the board,” said WGEA Director Libby Lyons.
“Last year, our data identified an ‘action gap’ – organisations have policies and strategies in place, but they are not making managers accountable for embedding them in their workplaces,” she said.
