More women are taking up managerial roles, but men remain nearly two times more likely to be among the highest earners. Some of the highest-paying industries have the worst gender pay gaps.
That is according to the latest data from the Workplace Gender Equality Agency, which reveals gender pay gaps, workforce composition and remuneration across more than 10,500 employers responsible for nearly 5.9 million staff in 2024-25.
Average remuneration in Australia grew by 3.6 per cent over the year. The strongest growth – 4.3 per cent for the lowest quartile and 4.5 per cent for the lower-middle quartile – was among lower-paid workers, who were more likely to be women. “This has contributed to a reduction in the overall gender pay gap,” the report says.
The highest-paying industries, meanwhile, measured through average total remuneration, often have the biggest gender pay gaps because of bigger gaps in pay between quartiles and the uneven distribution of women and men within each of those quartiles.
In the construction industry, only one in 10 workers in the highest-paid quartile are women, earning an average of $270,433, while women represent nearly four in 10 workers in the lowest-paid quartile, taking home an average of $80,614.
And in the financial and insurance services industry, the top 25 per cent – of which just over one-third are women – earn an average of $323,593, while the bottom 25 per cent – of which two-thirds are women – bring in an average of $79,380 each.
However, more employers overall now have a gender pay gap in the target range, meaning a difference of 5 per cent or less between women and men. In 2024-25, 22.5 per cent of employers were within this target range, up 1.1 percentage point from the previous year.
“Employers in women-dominated industries were the most likely to have a gender pay gap in the target range in 2024-25,” the report says.
Industries including public administration and safety, healthcare and social services and accommodation and food services registered the highest share of employers within the target range.
For the first time, gender pay gaps among 126 Commonwealth public sector employers have also been released alongside figures from 8500 private sector workplaces and 1850 corporate groups.
WGEA chief executive Mary Wooldridge said public sector gender pay gaps were generally narrower than those in the private sector because of structures that had been put in place over time.
“There’s a big range within the public sector, but there is a long history of structured progression, recognition of merit progression systems and active recruitment and aspiration towards balancing gender roles throughout management,” she said.
Men are 1.8 times more likely to have a job in the highest earning 25 per cent and women are 1.4 times more likely to be employed in the lowest earning 25 per cent but the representation of women in the upper quartile ticked up 1 percentage point and fell by the same amount in the lowest quartile.
“One of the reasons for this change was a small net increase in women in management roles, with higher pay,” the agency says.
Additional payments above base salary, such as superannuation, bonuses and overtime significantly contribute to the gender pay gap, according to the agency. Its data shows half of employers pay men nearly 30 per cent more than women in bonuses, overtime and additional payments excluding super.
Wooldridge said there was progress across the board, including in male-dominated industries such as rental hiring and real estate and wholesale trade and mining, but that there was a long way to go and that some companies had gone backwards.
“They’ve got to do the work,” she said. “Business success is absolutely predicated on having a workforce that is engaged, motivated, productive and contributing to the success of the company.”
However, she said going backwards was not necessarily a problem if it was part of a push by companies to improve gender equality.
“Some companies will have to go backwards before they go forwards,” she said. “For example, airlines that don’t have women in high-paying pilot roles or senior pilot roles may need to recruit more junior women and train them through the ranks to get to the senior levels, which could contribute to an increased gender pay gap in the first instance with an objective [to improve it] over time.”
Wooldridge said while there had been progress, employers needed to conduct more comprehensive analysis of pay and composition in their workplaces; choose evidence-backed actions to improve fairness; and set targets to improve accountability and measure progress.
In 2024-25, only one-quarter conducted a comprehensive gender pay gap analysis and nearly one-third did not conduct any type of analysis to find the causes of their gender pay gap.
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Millie Muroi is the economics writer at The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age. She was formerly an economics correspondent based in Canberra’s Press Gallery and the banking writer based in Sydney.Connect via X or email.