Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre and the Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA) have released a report 'Gender Equity Insights 2021: Making it a Priority' tracking progress towards closing the gender pay gap in Australia and highlighting the initiatives that have proven to be the most effective in driving improvement. Our key takeaways are below.

If current trends continue, it will take 26 years for the gender pay gap to close

Over the period since mandatory reporting to WGEA started in 2014 to the latest data collection in 2020, the gender pay gap in full-time remuneration has decreased from 24.7% to 20.1% across the workforce.

Assuming this trend continues at the current rate, the report predicts that it will take 26 years to eliminate the gap.

No date for eliminating the gap for some roles?

Looking more closely, the timeline for closing the gap differs depending on seniority of position/occupation. For example:

the gap is expected to close for 'managers' between 2031 and 2045 (depending on the role)

for 'non-managers' the gap will take much longer to close. For example for:

• 'professionals' the projected date is 2051
• clerical and administrative employees the projected date is 2053
• 'machinery operators and drivers' the projected date is 2060
• for labourers the projected date is 2064

Concerningly, for some roles - 'community and personal service', 'sales' and 'technical and trade' employees – there is no predicted date for eliminating the gap. 

Female representation in senior roles is (slowly) increasing though women remain underrepresented

Since 2014 representation of women on boards as directors, and to a lesser extent in Chair roles, has increased across reporting organisations.  

• Overall, women accounted for 23.7% of board positions in 2014. By 2020 this had risen to 28.1%.  
• Overall, women accounted for 11.9% of Chair roles in 2014. By 2020 this had risen to 14.6%.

The report found that there the share of women on boards varies within wide limits across different industries.

Overall, women tend to hold a higher proportion of leadership roles in industries where there is higher female workforce participation. For example in the health care and social assistance sector (where the workforce is 80% female), women hold 39% of board positions. In contrast, in the construction sector (where the workforce is 18% female), women hold only 11% of board positions.

This pattern is replicated with Chair positions.  

What works? Evidence that consistent, sustained focus drives improvement

The report found that organisations that have consistently implemented a comprehensive suite of gender equality policies and actions make larger and faster gains than those that take a less focused/consistent approach.

For example:

• Between 2015-2020, the top 10% of companies assessed as the most consistent in implementing gender equality policies/actions achieved a 4.4% reduction in the gender pay gap for 'managers' and a 2.3% reduction in the gender pay gap for non-managers. In contrast, the least consistent organisations saw their managerial gender pay gap narrow by only 1.4% and made zero progress on narrowing the pay gap for non-managers over the same period.
• Between 2018 and 2020, organisations that consistently undertook pay gap audits saw their managerial gender pay gap narrow at a faster rate (up to 2.2%) as compared with other companies.
• Between 2015 and 2020, organisations that set consistent bard gender representation targets saw the proportion of women on their boards increase 7.3%. In contrast, boards that did not set targets achieved only a 3.5% increase over the same period.

Barriers to progress?

A theme running through the report is the conclusion that there is a level of 'apathy and complacency' setting in, at least at some organisations. This is acting as a brake on overall progress, and the report suggests that if it is not addressed, may result in gains (in terms of both pay parity and representation) being lost.

Some examples of this highlighted in the report include the following.

• Not undertaking regular pay gap audits (and acting on the findings): In the 2019-2020 reporting period, almost 54% of reporting companies did not undertake a regular pay gap analysis. Commenting on this, WGEA Director Libby Lyons states, 'As I have said many times before, if every organisation in Australia did a pay gap analysis and acted on the identified problems of that analysis, the gender pay gap in Australia would soon be consigned to history'.
• Lack of focus on gender parity in female-dominated sectors: Organisations in female-dominated sectors (eg healthcare and education) lag other sectors (eg mining) in terms of closely monitoring and taking action to address gender parity.
• Failure to set representation targets: From a board representation perspective, though setting gender representation targets has proven to be effective both in terms of increasing in the number of women on boards and accelerating the pace of change, only 8% of reporting companies set targets of this kind.

WGEA Director Libby Lyons comments,

'As we navigate our economic recovery in the wake of a global pandemic, one thing is clear – we cannot afford to be complacent. Without ambition, target setting and consistency, we risk seeing a decline in all our hard-won gains in workplace gender equality. This in my view is simply unacceptable. All Australian employers must ACT.'