Australia’s Top Female Executives Make US$103,000 Less Than Men

Australia’s top female business chiefs are earning A$158,632 ($103,340) less per year than their male counterparts, according to the Workplace Gender Equality Agency, with the overall pay disparity between men and women nationally sitting at 21.8%.

Including executive salaries in its data for the first time, the WGEA announced on Wednesday that Australia’s gender pay gap had risen from 21.7% a year earlier, meaning women earned 78 cents for every dollar paid to a man. That equates to women on average receiving A$28,425 less each year.

However, using the previous measure that excluded executives, the gender pay gap narrowed substantially to 21.1%, the lowest level since employers began reporting in 2014.

WGEA Chief Executive Officer Mary Wooldridge said in a statement that “change is happening,” adding that there had been “a significant increase in employers investigating what’s driving their gender pay gap and acting on the results.”

Australian companies with more than 100 local employees have been required to declare their individual gender pay gaps under changes made by the center-left Labor government. That was part of a number of measures intended to shrink the persistent inequality in pay packets across the country.

Minister for Finance Katy Gallagher said the government would introduce new legislation into parliament this week to mandate organizations with more than 500 employees set “genuine and measurable” targets to address gender equality.

Those targets will include gender makeup of boards, pay gap and flexible working arrangements, she said in a statement on Wednesday. Despite the government’s efforts, Australia has only made slow progress on salary and representation at senior levels.

According to the WGEA, just one-in-four chief executives are women, and they are paid, on average, A$74,923 less per year than their male counterparts. When bonuses and discretionary pay are included, that swell to A$158,632 less than their male peers.

On top of that, one-in-four boards still have no women, while every occupation and industry has a gender pay gap in favor of men.

“The national results show a persistent and pervasive gender pay gap still limits the lifetime earnings of Australian women, affecting their ability to save, invest and build long-term financial security for themselves and their families,” WGEA’s Wooldridge said.

Photograph: Australia’s Finance Minister Katy Gallagher. Photo credit: Hilary Wardhaugh/Bloomberg

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