It will take 80 years to fix Australia's gender imbalance in boardrooms, an expert says, with the vast majority of workplaces still paying men more than women.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
or signup to continue reading
The Australia Scorecard for Gender Equality 2020-21 has also revealed men are twice as likely to be in the highest-earning wage bracket, while nearly a quarter of boardrooms have no female representation.
The overall gender pay gap dropped slightly to 22.8 per cent, but Australian women continued to earn an average $25,792 less than men - or roughly $7.72 for every $10 earned by men.
The vast majority of Australian businesses - 85 per cent - also pay their male employees a higher average wage.
Workplace Gender Equality Agency Director Mary Wooldridge said the factors which have historically underpinned pay inequality continued today.
That included workplace bias, women taking more time out of the workforce, and "feminised industries" receiving comparatively less pay.
But Ms Wood said progress was sluggish but claimed there were "positive signs", with women accounting for 47 per cent of managerial promotions despite making up 40 per cent of managerial positions.
"So women are making inroads into balancing the gender composition of the managerial ranks. But once again, progress is slow," she said.
"It is positive that that we've got that that significant proportion of women being promoted."
While 40 per cent of employers have narrowed their pay gap since last year, 37 per cent saw their pay gap widen.
Men are twice as likely to be in the quarter earning the most - $120,000 or more.
Significant challenges remained in Australian board rooms, too; although women accounted for more than half of the Australian workforce, more than 80 per cent of CEOs were men.
Nearly three quarters of boards were over 60 per cent male, including 22 per cent which had no female representation.
Ms Wooldridge said women's representation in boardrooms was increasing "very slowly, warning it will take Australia 80 years to rectify its imbalance.
She said the imbalance was particularly acute in medium-sized businesses, with no ASX-listed company without a female board representative.
"We know that when more women are on the board, not only do we have a broader diversity, but the evidence shows that there's leadership to drive gender equality more broadly through the organisation," she said.
"We need to make sure there's women at the highest level of decision making to to drive gender equality across the board."
Health care and social assistance, and education and training were least likely to undertake gender pay gap audits, or take action once they had.
But more than half - 51 per cent - of employers now offered paid domestic violence leave, a sharp rise on the 12 per cent in 2015-16.
"That has brought focus to it, and employers [are] recognising that they need to be supportive of the personal circumstances of their employees, not only as COVID related but more broadly as well," Ms Wooldridge said.
"I think that's a very positive sign, and some momentum we want to maintain."
For the first time, the scorecard collected data on workers' age and location, meaning age and state-by-by breakdowns of the gender pay gap will soon be available.
Our coverage of the health and safety aspects of this outbreak of COVID-19 in the ACT is free for anyone to access. However, we depend on subscription revenue to support our journalism. If you are able, please subscribe here. If you are already a subscriber, thank you for your support. You can also sign up for our newsletters for regular updates.
Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content:
- Bookmark canberratimes.com.au
- Download our app
- Make sure you are signed up for our breaking and regular headlines newsletters
- Follow us on Twitter
- Follow us on Instagram