Gender equity insights 2016: inside Australia's gender pay gap

Seeks to add to and strengthen the evidence base that exists around gender pay gaps throughout Australian workplaces. Executive Summary The persistent gender pay gap is an economic, political and social issue. Gender pay gaps do not always signal direct discrimination, but remain problematic for a number of reasons. They represent poorer outcomes for women in terms of economic and personal freedoms; lost human capital potential and investment; and an impairment of economic growth for a nation looking to remain competitive on a global scale. This first report in the BCEC | WGEA Gender Equity Insights series seeks to add to and strengthen the evidence base that exists around gender pay gaps throughout Australian workplaces. The report uses unique data reported to WGEA, capturing 4 million workers and more than 12,000 employers in the 2014-15 reporting period. The report findings draw attention to the greater remuneration men receive compared to women in almost every scenario, but particulary in more senior occupation levels. The large and persistent gender pay gaps among managers highlights the likely evidence of biased behaviours throughout organisations, where men are given preferential pay treatment over women in senior management levels. These differences in remuneration at the top end of the occupation scale are shown to have severe negative impacts on women’s expected career earnings, where women progressing through managerial levels at the same pace as men can expect to earn $600K less in a ten-year period. A more positive finding borne out by a special investigation within the report, reveals the benefits of increased representation of females on governing Boards and how this trickles down to reduced gender pay gaps across the organisation. The report also presents for the first time WGEA part-time and casual pay data. The part-time and casual data adds complexity to our understanding of gender pay gaps across the workforce – with part-time non- management categories in some industries showing a pay gap in favour of women. However, large pay gaps in favour of men exist among more senior positions regardless of full or part-time status. The insights contained in this report are intended to shine a light on the conditions under which gender pay gaps are most likely to occur and generate discussion and debate about how to promote pay equity in Australian workplaces