A recent report by the Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA) has highlighted that Australian women earn 86 cents for every dollar earned by men in the Commonwealth public sector.
The WGEA’s Commonwealth Public Sector Gender Equality Scorecard: Key Employer Results from 2022 marks the first time the agency has compared gender pay gaps and overall gender equality between Australia’s private sector and the Commonwealth public sector.
WGEA CEO Mary Wooldridge said in a statement taht the Scorecard sets a baseline to inform employer action and improvement to accelerate progress to reduce the gender pay gap.
“A key message from this first Commonwealth Public Sector Gender Equality Scorecard is that good policies alone do not translate into outcomes. Positive change takes thought and deliberate action.”
The report reveals a total remuneration average gender pay gap of 13.5 per cent in the Commonwealth public sector, which is 8.2 percentage points lower than the 21.7 per cent gap observed in the private sector. On average, women working full-time in the federal public sector earn $19,000 less than their male counterparts.
In the Commonwealth public sector, the median gender pay gap is lower than that of the private sector, with 50 per cent of employers having a median total remuneration gender pay gap above 6.9 per cent, compared to 9.1 per cent in the private sector.
Management positions in the Commonwealth public sector are notably gender-balanced. Nearly half (48 per cent) of all employers have a gender-balanced management team, while 21 per cent have male-dominated management and 31 per cent have female-dominated management. In contrast, the private sector has 27 per cent gender-balanced management, 57 per cent male-dominated, and 23 per cent female-dominated teams.
Ms Wooldridge added:
“Commonwealth public sector employers are also taking actions to deliver flexibility that helps empower more women to take leadership roles and drives gender balance in key management positions. But more does need to be done across all employers to continue to reduce the gender pay gap, including to combat stereotypes that deter men from taking parental leave and around women in non-manager roles.”
Full-time workforce participation is higher in the Commonwealth public sector, with 75 per cent of employees working full-time compared to 54 per cent in the private sector. Additionally, 73 per cent of women in the Commonwealth public sector work full-time, compared to only 41 per cent in the private sector where 59 per cent of women work part-time or casually.
However, men are more likely to occupy higher-paid roles than women in the public sector, with men being 2.5 times more likely to be in the highest paying quartile compared to 1.9 times in the private sector.
The report also identifies issues with men taking parental leave in the public sector. Only 11 per cent of employees taking either universal or primary carer’s leave were men, compared to 14 per cent in the private sector.
Furthermore, although almost all employers (99 per cent) offer paid parental leave, only 13 per cent of Commonwealth public sector employers provide it universally, without designating “primary” or “secondary” carer roles. This is lower than the 21 per cent seen in the private sector.
The Scorecard is the first of a new annual report series publishing the results from Commonwealth public sector Gender Equality Reporting to WGEA against the 6 gender equality indicators (GEIs). This report underscores the ongoing challenges and disparities in achieving gender equality in the workplace, despite some areas of progress in the Commonwealth public sector.
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