ACTU: Women employed under awards now earn $119 more weekly

Australian women who are employed under awards are now earning an additional $119 per week - or $6,200 annually - compared to three years ago, according to the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU).

In a statement, ACTU lauded the strong pay gains for 1.7 million women employed under awards.

"It is great to see wages moving upwards again for women," said ACTU president Michele O'Neil in a statement.

The union attributed the pay gain to the recent July 1 increase of 3.75%, the 5.75% last year, and the 4.6% pay hike in 2021-22.

"It's women who mostly rely most on the protection of award wages, so it really matters that the last three annual wage reviews lifted their wages by 14.1%," O'Neil said.

Closing the gender pay gap

Meanwhile, the union called out the banking and finance sector for continuing to have "stubbornly high gender pay gaps," warning that it will continue exposing workplaces that to don't take steps in closing the gap.

"Closing the gender pay gap is crucial in putting more money into the hands of women and their households," O'Neil said.

"Companies may not have set out to deliberately under-pay women, but failing to acknowledge they have a gender pay gap problem, or to do anything about it, is not going to wash with Australian workers."

Australia's gender pay gap currently stands at 12%. The Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA) has also declared August 19 to mark this year's Equal Pay Day.

To close the gap, the Australian government passed a law mandating large employers to publish their gender pay gaps through WGEA. According to ACTU, the Finance Sector Union is also looking into employment contracts offered to women to continue exposing large pay differences.