Australia's gender pay gap falls to new low

Canberra: The gender pay gap in Australia has fallen 1.1 percentage points to a new low of 21.7 per cent in 2023, a new report said on Tuesday.

More women in management drives a decline in the gender pay gap, but every industry and almost three in four employers still have a gender pay gap larger than 5 per cent in favor of men, the Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA) said in its annual update on the state of workplace gender equality.

It's a decrease of 1.1 percentage points from 22.8 per cent in 2022, the second largest single-year drop since WGEA started collecting employer data in 2014, reports Xinhua news agency.

It means on average, for every 1 Australian dollar men earn, women earn 78 cents.

The average annual pay difference between men and women has narrowed by A$1,322, but a gap of A$26,393 remains, the report said.

The key driver of the lower gender pay gap is an increase in the proportion of women in management and in the upper pay quartiles.

The proportion of women managers is now at 42 per cent, up from 41 per cent last year, according to the report.

"Increased discussion and debate around gender equality, a tight labour market and impending legislative reform have helped drive action on workplace gender equality over the last year," WGEA chief executive officer Mary Wooldridge was quoted as saying in a news release.