Men in Australia twice as likely to be paid more than women
- Claire Lee
Men in Australia are twice as likely to be paid more than women, showed a report by the Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA).
Some 22% of company boards also do not have a single woman on them, while less than one in five CEOs are female, it said.
“From the very top-down, women are undervalued in Australian businesses and underrepresented where decisions are made,” WGEA Director Mary Wooldridge said in a statement.
“We will not see gender parity at CEO level for another 80 years on current rates of progress,” she added.
Data showed that one in three men are in Australia’s top earnings quartile, bringing in at least A$120,000 ($86,100) a year. Meanwhile, one in three women belong to the lowest paid group of workers who make A$60,000 (US$42,785) or less.
READ: Australia’s companies narrow gender super gap
Sector-wise, construction firms have the largest wage discrepancy, with women in that industry earning on average 31% less than men. This is followed by the financial and insurance industries, which register a gender pay gap of almost 30%.
The WGEA report covers over four million employees in the country and captures the impact of the pandemic and the country’s initial lockdowns on the workforce.
