Australia’s workplace gender pay gap continues to improve, but structural inequalities persist.
The latest annual report from the Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA) shows the national gender pay gap has fallen to 11.2%, a decrease of 0.9 percentage points from the previous year. Based on total remuneration, women earn on average 88.8 cents for every dollar earned by men. Men are nearly twice as likely as women to occupy the highest-paid positions, while women dominate lower-paid roles.
The data covers more than 10,500 employers and approximately 5.9 million employees. The report emphasises that the gender pay gap does not refer to “unequal pay for the same work,” but rather compares overall average earnings between men and women. The disparity is influenced by multiple factors, including industry distribution, part-time work rates, caregiving responsibilities and bonus structures. Currently, more than 53% of the workforce is employed in highly gender-segregated industries, where one gender accounts for over 60% of workers, highlighting the entrenched nature of occupational segregation.
Male-dominated sectors such as construction and mining offer higher overall pay levels, but women remain concentrated in lower salary brackets. The construction industry recorded a gender pay gap of 23.8%, the highest among all sectors, although this represents a 1.5 percentage point improvement from last year. In contrast, female-dominated sectors such as healthcare also show pay gaps, in part due to gender imbalances in senior leadership roles widening average earnings differences.
Despite overall improvements, experts note that without addressing structural factors such as education pathways, career choices and the division of family responsibilities, the gender pay gap is unlikely to be fundamentally eliminated.