Latest news with #WGEA
ABC News
21-05-2025
- Business
- ABC News
Releasing public sector pay gaps increases accountability, says WGEA CEO
Workplace Gender Equality Authority chief executive Mary Wooldridge says the new data places a spotlight on public sector employers and enhances transparency and accountability, which is a catalyst for further action. #ABCBusiness
The Australian
21-05-2025
- Business
- The Australian
WGEA: PS women earn $8200 a year less than men
Women in the public sector earn on average $8200 a year less than men, according to landmark analysis of public sector pay gaps by the Workplace Gender Equality Agency. The WGEA's examination of 120 public sector employers and two corporate groups found that more than half had reduced their gender pay gap in the past 12 months. According to the WGEA data, the median total remuneration gender pay gap was 11.3 per cent at the CSIRO; 9.8 per cent at the ABC; 8.6 per cent at Australia Post; and 4.8 per cent at the Australian Taxation Office. The median gap at the Australian Federal Police was 12.2 per cent; 11.5 per cent at the Reserve Bank; 1.9 per cent at SBS; and 1.3 per cent at NBN Co. About 50 per cent of public sector employers have a gender gap below 4.8 per cent, a point known as the employer gender pay gap mid-point. The private sector mid-point is 8.9 per cent. Across all employees in the public sector, the average total remuneration gender pay gap is 6.4 per cent, compared to 21.1 per cent in the private sector. WGEA chief executive Mary Wooldridge said nearly half of the employers in the sector still had a gender pay gap in favour of men, and while they were often smaller than the private sector, as evidenced by the 4.8 per cent mid-point gap, 'this does nevertheless show that work still needs to be done to improve gender balance in both pay and composition'. Ms Wooldridge pointed to payments above base salary, which the report showed was a key contributor to the gender pay gap. The value of payments above base salary including overtime, performance bonuses and superannuation added $5373, or 3.6 per cent, to the gender pay gap, indicating they offered more financial reward to men than women. 'Releasing public sector gender pay gaps for the first time today places a spotlight on these employers, like it has done in the private sector. This enhanced transparency and accountability is a catalyst for further action,' Ms Wooldridge said. She said the results pointed to how progress can be achieved when employers use long-term and deliberate actions that address gender equality. 'The commonwealth public sector has achieved gender balance in the composition of the workforce, at managerial level and in the upper quartile of remuneration,' she said. 'This is a critical driver of the lower gender pay gaps reported today. The results also show that employers are taking action to improve equality in their workplaces.' Nation CCTV of Erin Patterson's 9-second bathroom break a day after hosting the fatal mushroom lunch has been shown to the jury in her triple-murder trial. Nation Premier Chris Minns has issued a scathing statement as hundreds of commuters were left stranded after a power outage brought the city's train network to a grinding halt.
News.com.au
20-05-2025
- Business
- News.com.au
New data reveals men earn more than women in public sector but gender pay gap narrower than private employers
A bombshell report on Australia's public sector has exposed a shocking gap between how much men are earning compared to women. The report, released by the Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA), shows men earn on average $8200 more than women who work across Commonwealth government agencies, departments and businesses. For every $1 a man earned, a woman made 94 cents. The report found 45 per cent of public sector employers have a median pay gap within five per cent of the target range, compared to 31 per cent of private sector employers. A similar report released in March found men earned on average$28,425 more than women in the private sector. Public sector employers include Australia Post, the ABC, SBS, Australian Federal Police, NBN, Reserve Bank, CSIRO, Snowy Hydro, Red Energy as well as Federal Government departments and agencies. Half of public sector employers have a median total remuneration gender pay gap lower than 4.8 per cent, compared to 8.9 per cent in the private sector. WGEA chief executive officer Mary Wooldridge said the results showed progress could be achieved when employers addressed gender equality. 'The Commonwealth public sector has achieved gender-balance in the composition of the workforce, at managerial level and in the upper quartile of remuneration,' she said. 'This is a critical driver of the lower gender pay gaps reported today.' Ms Wooldridge said the results also showed employers were taking action to improve equality in their workplaces, with 51 per cent of employers improving their median total remuneration gender pay gap in the past year. 'Pleasingly we have also seen large rises in the number of employers conducting a gender pay gap analysis, acting on the results and consulting with employees to understand their experience at work,' she said. 'These actions are crucial steps to help employers gain greater understanding of the drivers of their individual gender pay gaps and to implement relevant and evidence-informed actions to address them.' Ms Wooldridge said while progress had been made there were some areas that needed improvement with only 11 per cent of men accounting for all carers leave taken, and 49 per cent of employers having a gender pay gap that favoured men. 'Workplace gender equality benefits everyone, so it is important that barriers for men are also addressed,' Ms Wooldridge said. 'With changes in access to parental leave now enacted, Commonwealth public sector employers need to work deliberately and strategically to drive cultural change that removes real or perceived penalties for taking time out for caring roles and ensure more men have confidence to take primary carer's leave.'
Yahoo
27-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Major change for group of Aussie workers
Large businesses in Australia will undergo a major change to address workplace gender equality after a bill passed parliament on Tuesday. Recent data published by the Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA) found the total remuneration average gender pay gap in Australia was a difference of $28,425 over the course of one year. A review of the Workplace Gender Equality Act identified target-setting was an effective way to improve gender equality in the workplace. Organisations that employ more than 500 people in Australia are now required to implement three gender equality targets into the workplace, and will have three years to achieve or make progress on their targets. Employers can choose which targets they select from a menu, with priority areas covering the gender pay gap, workforce and board composition, support for carers and parents, consultation and prevention of sexual harassment. The changes will apply to nearly 2000 employers and benefit an estimated 3.9 million employees. WGEA found 56 per cent of employers covered by these reforms already had gender equality targets, and about one-third had set three or more targets which met the new requirements. Employers who fail to meet the new requirements risk losing Commonwealth contracts, and will be named and shamed by the agency. WGEA chief executive officer Mary Wooldridge said the new requirement was introduced to accelerate employer actions to ensure all employees were equally valued, rewarded and safe at work. 'While many employers are making great progress on gender equality, there is also a large group of employers who are not,' she said. 'Employers indicate that even when they are aware they have a significant gender pay gap, many haven't taken action to reduce it. 'Targets are specific, time-bound and measurable objectives that set a benchmark for employers to work towards. The evidence available shows they are effective in driving real change. 'By introducing a target setting requirement, Australia is ensuring large employers are publicly accountable to take action and make demonstrable progress towards gender equality.'
The Guardian
04-03-2025
- Business
- The Guardian
How media, supermarkets and banks compare on gender pay gap
Which Australian radio station pays men twice as much as women? Which bank has a pay gap nearly double the national average? And which large supermarket chain pays the best?* The answers to these questions – and many more – have been laid bare after the government's Women's Gender Equality Agency (WGEA) published its second annual report of company-level gender pay gaps this week. The report, which reveals the pay gaps and gender compositions at nearly 8,000 Australian companies, allowed Australians to peek behind the financial curtain of their own and other employers. Nationally, the average gender pay gap is 22%, meaning Australian women earned 78c on average for every $1 earned by men, or $28,425 less than their male counterparts in the 12 months to March 2024. In 2025, for the first time, WGEA also published the average pay at each individual company, as well as the average pay per quartile of the workforce, allowing people to see the average salaries at their own – and rival – companies. In publishing the average remuneration at each company, a sad truth was revealed – the higher the average pay packet at a company, the larger their pay gap favouring men tended to be. Across the country, 5,347 employers, or 72.2%, have a gender pay gap that favours men; 21.3% have a neutral gender pay gap, which means an average pay gap of +-5%, and 6.5% (474 employers) have a pay gap that favours women. In the media space, three companies had achieved pay equality: Guardian Australia (referred to in the data as GNM Australia), with a gap of 3.5% favouring women, Australian Associated Press (with a pay gap of 0.5% favouring men) and News Life Media, which is part of News Ltd and has titles such as GQ, Donna Hay, Vogue Australia and (with a pay gap of 2.5%). The largest pay gap was at Radio 2GB Sydney at 51.1% in favour of men. 2GB also had the second highest average total remuneration of any news media company, at $149,000. The highest average pay was at Fairfax Media Publications, at $152,000. WGEA's calcuation of average total remuneration included salary, superannuation, bonuses, overtime and any extra payments. The average pay number may also be higher in this reporting than in reality, due to the inclusion of casual employees in the figures. Casual and part-time employees have their rates annualised and converted to full-time equivalent earnings. All supermarkets had relatively low gender pay gaps, in line with the national picture which found that the largest companies tended to have smallest difference between men and women. The outlier among the large supermarkets (with 500 employees or more) was 7-Eleven, which had average total remuneration package of $169,000 and the highest gender pay gap of 15.3%. Woolworths supermarket, with more than 162,000 employees across the country, has the next highest gender pay gap of the large supermarkets in the country – at 10.7%. After 7-Eleven, Aldi stores paid the best, with average total remuneration of $90,000, nearly double that of Ritchies Stores ($48,000). Of the large banks – with 1,000 employees or more – Macquarie Bank was the outlier, with a considerably higher total remuneration than the others ($227,000) and a gender pay gap of 41.8%. The big four banks had average total pay of around $160,000 a year and pay gaps of around 20%. Across all industries, the company with the highest average salary was real estate company Goodman Ltd, with an average across the company of $766,000. It had an average gender pay gap of 66.4%. At Goodman Ltd, the average earned by the highest paid 25% of employees was $2.381m. The next highest average remuneration packages in the country were at financial services companies Optiver Pty. Limited ($693k) and Canaccord Genuity (Australia) Limited ($672k). Both of these companies had very high gender pay gaps favouring men, at 63.6% and 68.5% respectively. *2GB Radio Sydney; Macquarie Bank; Aldi
