Canberra, March 3 – Australia's gender pay gap in the workplace decreased in 2024-25, but men remained significantly more likely than women to hold the highest-paying jobs, according to a government report.
The Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA) released annual gender pay gap results for 10,500 employers across the country on Tuesday, revealing that half of the employers had an average total gender pay gap of less than 11.2 per cent in favour of male employees in 2024-25.
This represents a decrease of 0.9 percentage points from 2023-24, when half of the employers had an average gender pay gap of less than 12.1 per cent.
The WGEA report stated that 54.8 per cent of employers nationally reduced their average total gender pay gap in 2024-25.
However, the WGEA found that men accounted for 64 per cent of the highest-paying quartile of jobs in 2024-25, and that women accounted for 58 per cent of the two lowest-paying quartiles of jobs, according to Xinhua news agency.
"The fact that men are nearly twice as likely as women to be in the highest-paid roles, and that women still dominate the lowest-paid roles, should serve as a reality check for anyone who believes Australia has achieved equality in the workplace," said WGEA chief executive officer Mary Wooldridge in a statement.
The report found that 22.5 per cent of employers had a gender pay gap within the WGEA's target range of 5.0 per cent in favour of men or women in 2024-25, up from 21.4 per cent within the target range in 2023-24.
The Minister for Women, Katy Gallagher, said the release of the data – which also includes Commonwealth public-sector employers for the first time – was helping "shift the dial".
"This transparency sheds light on where progress is being made and where more work is needed," she said.
