Men are earning more than women. How can HR bridge the gap?

Male employees are twice as likely to be highly paid than women in Australia, according to a study from the Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA), with men earning more than $120,000 a year than women. According to WGEA, while Australia's pay gap "narrowed slightly" to 22.8%, this still reflects a difference in take home pay of $25,792.

WGEA revealed that the industries with the biggest pay gaps are Construction (30.6%), Financial and Insurance Services (29.5%), and the Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services (24.7%). The finance industry, however, also posted the strongest reductions in gender pay gap, which WGEA director Mary Wooldridge attributed to the findings that the sector had the highest proportion of organisations that carried out pay gap audits.

The director said that the average earnings difference between men and women is one of the "financial ramifications" of under-representation of women in senior roles.

According to the study, less than one in five chief executive officers are women, and 22% of all boards in Australia still "don't have a single woman in the room."

Further research from WGEA and the Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre revealed that having more women in leadership positions is associated with declining pay gaps.

"The data and research have established a clear business imperative: having more women in key decision-making positions delivers better company performance, greater productivity and greater profitability as well as improved gender equality," said Wooldridge.

Read more: Gender pay equality: How does your organisation stack up?

How to reduce pay inequality?

Wooldridge said that actions correcting gender pay gaps are three times more effective when it is also reported to the executive of the board.

"Organisations that are transparent and accountable with their pay gap audits saw an average reduction of 3.3 percentage points in their organisation-wide gender pay gap in one year," said the director, who lauded the said employers.

She urged other employers to find and compare how their organisations are doing when it comes to gender pay gaps, suggesting that they use the WGEA's new data visualisation tool online.

"This is a chance to measure your organisation's gender pay gap against your industry's trends or see how you're your workforce composition and policies and strategies for recruitment and promotion shape up against the competition," the director said.

"Because if you're not making progress on these things, your employees may realise there are others who are – and vote with their feet."

The findings reported by WGEA came from its 202-21 census on gender equality for employers with over 100 employees, according to Wooldridge, adding that it revealed employers' increased support on flexible work, paid domestic violence leave, and parental leave.