Employers fail to ‘step up’ for gender equality

Employers across Australia are being told to improve their gender equality policies.

Why? The country's gender pay gap stalled at 22.8% in 2022.

"A pay gap of 22.8% means women earn an average of $26,600 less than men, based on their gender," said Mary Wooldridge, Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA) director.

The findings indicate that employers have "failed to step up on their gender equality" policies, she said.

"At a time when Australia is experiencing a critical skills and labour shortage, WGEA's annual Employer Census shows that too many employers have failed to step up on gender equality leaving many women no better off than they were 12 months ago," Wooldridge said.

"This failure to improve needs to be a clarion call for all employers."

Leaders still lacking

The census also found that despite a slight increase over the past 12 months, only 22% of CEOs are women.

Only one in five governing boards are gender-balanced, while roughly one in five boards have no women at all.

Less than one per cent of boards comprise only women, the report also found, while 72% of boards are comprised of more than 60% of men, despite the number of boards without women declining since 2014.

Men are also more likely to hold managerial positions, even in female-dominated industries like healthcare and education.

Employer initiatives

More employers (62%) are now offering paid primary carers leave than last year, according to the census, with 92% of them saying they offer it equally to men and women. 

Nearly two in five employers also said that they have implemented an "all-roles flex" approach in the workplace to give employees the option to choose how, when, and where they want to work.

More than half (53%) of surveyed employers in the census also revealed that they have a target for gender equality in the workplace. These targets include:

• increasing the number of women in leadership (55%)
• reducing the gender pay gap (38%)
• increasing the number of men taking parental leave (19%)
• increasing male take up of flexible work arrangements (16%)
• boosting the number of men in female-dominated roles (14%)

"Lasting change requires employers to make bold, creative choices that send a signal to all employees that gender equality is a core part of their business strategy and a priority for those in leadership and managerial roles," Wooldridge said.

"Leading employers are already putting solutions in place that address challenges like workforce shortages by tailoring factory shifts around school pick-up and drop-off times or promoting – and role-modelling – flexible hours or part-time work arrangements among managers and executives."

To help employers keep track of gender equality in their workplace, Wooldridge also suggested using the agency's Data Explorer.

"This is a chance to measure how your organisation's workforce composition and policies and strategies for recruitment, promotion and retention shape up against the competition," the WGEA director said. "Because if you're not making progress on these things, your employees will realise there are others who are."