Workplace gender equality

In Australia, advances continue to be made on gender equality in workplaces. However, there is more to do. As of May 2023:

Australia’s national gender pay gap is 13.0 per cent for full-time employees.
Women’s average weekly ordinary full-time earnings across all industries and occupations are $1,686.00, and men’s average weekly ordinary full-time earnings are $1,938.30.
For every dollar men earn on average, women earn 87 cents. Each week this equates to women earning on average $253.30 less than men¹.

There continues to be a substantial workforce participation gap between women and men. The workforce participation rate was 62.8 per cent for women and 71.3 per cent for men in October 2023². In 2022-23, men accounted for 14 per cent of all employer-funded paid primary carer’s leave taken³. Women are more likely to participate in unpaid work activities (94 per cent, compared to 86 per cent of men), and child care activities (89 per cent of female parents, compared to 73 per cent of male parents) – and spend more time on those activities than men⁴. Women make up over 47.5 per cent of the workforce, but only 9 per cent of CEOs in the ASX300⁵. There remains a gender pay gap in favour of men across all levels of the workforce and industries, including in female-dominated industries.

Narrowing the gender pay gap requires collective effort from all levels of government, business, and the community. The Office for Women works in partnership with the Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA) to further drive this change. WGEA is a statutory Government agency charged with promoting and improving gender equality in Australian workplaces.

Review of the Workplace Gender Equality Act 2012

In 2021 the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet led a targeted Review of the Workplace Gender Equality Act 2012 (WGE Act). The WGE Act Review (the Review) considered the current legislation and gender equality indicators, along with ongoing employer reporting obligations. The Review was released in March 2022, and concluded that the gender pay gap in Australia was not closing at a fast enough rate.

Public consultation on the WGEA Review consultation was open from 21 October to 24 November 2021. The Office for Women received 155 submissions in response to the consultation paper and Terms of Reference. All public submissions are available at Review Of The Workplace Gender Equality Act 2012 submissions.

The WGEA Review Report made ten recommendations to accelerate progress on gender equality in workplaces and streamline reporting for employers. The recommendations included publishing organisation gender pay gaps at employer levels. This was designed to improve transparency and require large employers (500 or more employees) to set measurable gender equality targets. The final report is available at WGEA Review Report.

In August 2022, the Government agreed in-principle to implement all ten of the Review’s recommendations. The Office for Women is implementing the Review’s recommendations to further drive gender equality in Australia.

Six of the ten recommendations of the Review of the WGE Act have been wholly or partly implemented. This includes implementation through the Workplace Gender Equality Amendment (Closing the Gender Pay Gap) Act 2023 (the amending Act), which received Royal Assent on 11 April 2023, together with the Workplace Gender Equality (Matters in relation to Gender Equality Indicators) Instrument 2023, and the Workplace Gender Equality (Gender Equality Standards) Instrument 2023.

The amending Act requires WGEA to publish gender pay gaps at an employer level for the first time, in addition to publishing gender pay gaps at a national, industry and occupational level. The remade Instruments have streamlined aspects of existing reporting to reduce the regulatory burden on employers, freeing businesses up to focus their efforts on gender equality action. More information about the amending Act is available on the Parliament of Australia website.

The Office for Women and WGEA are continuing to progress work on the remaining Review recommendations. Many of these recommendations require considered and careful implementation planning, and have involved further targeted consultation and research, to ensure proper implementation.