Australia's gender wage gap at 20-year high

The difference between men and women’s pay in Australia has reached its highest level in two decades.

Figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics show that the nation’s women earn 18.2% less than their male counterparts on average. In addition, women’s superannuation amounts to a mere 59% of men’s on retirement.

In other words, a woman on average pay would have to work an extra 66 days per year in order to match the salary of an average man. Today is known as Equal Pay Day, marking 66 days since the start of the financial year.

The gender gap is particularly high in industries such as finance, real estate, and health care, which report gaps of 29.56%, 28.79% and 28.59% respectively.

Helen Conway, director of Australia’s Workplace Gender Equality Agency, commented: “There is plain discrimination; some of it is conscious and [some] unconscious. There is a gender bias in the way we make pay decisions and other ways that impact pay.”

According to Solomon W. Polachek, policies promoting greater lifetime work for women are most effective in reducing the gender wage gap. Boosting women’s human capital has also been shown to balance wages between genders.

Read more here.

Related articles:
Equal pay legislation and the gender wage gap, by Solomon W. Polachek
Anonymous job applications and hiring discrimination, by Ulf Rinne