Australian men twice as likely to be highly paid than women: Report

Canberra, Feb 11 (SocialNews.XYZ) Australian men are twice as likely to be highly paid than women, a government report revealed on Friday.

The Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA) published its latest data on the gender pay gap, reports Xinhua news agency.

Based on the earnings of more than 4 million employees between April 2020 and March 2021, it revealed that men, on average, earn A$25,792 ($18,371) more per year than women.

It equates to a gender pay gap of 22.8 per cent, a slight fall from 23.3 per cent the previous year, meaning that for every A$10 a man earned, a woman made A$7.72.

One third of male employees make more than A$120,000 per year, as likely as females, while women are 50 per cent more likely to earn less than A$60,000.

Seventy-three per cent of Australian employers have pay gaps in favour of men while 7 per cent favour women and 20 per cent have achieved parity.

"From the very top-down, women are undervalued in Australian businesses and underrepresented where decisions are made," Mary Wooldridge, director of the WGEA, said in a media release.

"Our latest insights show this pattern clearly: 22 per cent of all boards still don't have a single woman in the room; and about three quarters of all boards have a vast majority (over 60 per cent) of men.

"Of those heavily male-dominated boards, only 12 percent have set a target to increase the representation of women, and on average that target is only 35 percent -- not even what is generally considered a balanced board," she added.

The construction industry had the biggest gender pay gap, with men earning 30 per cent more on average than women followed by financial and insurance services (29.5 per cent) and professional, scientific and technical services industries (24.7 per cent).

Source: IANS