Employer gender pay gaps report 2023-24

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WGEA’s Employer Gender Pay Gaps Report sets a benchmark from which employers can drive change.

It includes the publication of 2023-24 gender pay gaps of 7,800 private sector employers and 1,700 corporate groups.

Data Explorer

WGEA's Data Explorer contains all the gender pay gaps, as well as a voluntary Employer Statement, where they have been provided, to give context to the employer's result. 

This report comes in two parts - a PDF with the benchmarks to assist with understanding and assessing the gender pay gaps, and an Excel document with all 9500 employer gender pay gaps listed.

Download the 2023-24 Employer Gender Pay Gaps report

Download the report

Download the excel document

The gender pay gaps WGEA released in 2025 reflect what employers were doing in anticipation of WGEA publishing employer pay gaps for the first time.

While they don't reflect the impact of that publication, we do know employers were taking steps to understand their gender pay gaps and identify the drivers.

The first key action an employer can take to reduce their gender pay gap is to identify its key drivers through a gender pay gap analysis.

In 2023-24, 68% of employers conducted a gender pay gap analysis on their results.

What is it?

The gender pay gap is the difference between the average or median remuneration of men and the average or median remuneration of women, expressed as a percentage of men’s remuneration.

This is not the same as equal pay.

Equal pay is where women and men are paid the same for performing the same role or work of equal or comparable value. In Australia, this has been a legal requirement since 1969.When an employer says they have ensured they have equal pay, this means they are complying with the legal requirements.

The gender pay gap encompasses broader differences in pay and gender composition within a workforce. Comparing the average pay of men and women in an organisation allows employers to see whether one gender has fewer barriers to high-paying roles than another.  Although instances of unequal pay can drive the gender pay gap, it is not the only cause. Employers can find the other causes by completing a gender pay gap analysis.

WGEA focuses on total remuneration gender pay gaps, that include payments above base salary such as superannuation, performance bonuses, overtime and allowances, as this gives a more accurate representation of the real differences in earnings between men and women. 

Comparing data

Many people will want to compare individual employer gender pay gaps to understand how a particular employer is performing.

Because of changes in the way data is published, it is important median to median figures are compared.

3,396 employer median gender pay gaps are comparable year-on-year.

WGEA did not publish average gender pay gaps in 2024, due to the exclusion of CEO remuneration. As the median is not skewed by one large salary, this provides an accurate comparison point for these employees.

In some cases, an employer’s 2022-23 gender pay gap is listed as non-comparable. This is due to differences in how WGEA has published employer gender pay gaps for 2023-24. 

If some, or all, of a corporate group’s subsidiaries have similar gender equality policies and strategies, employers can report to WGEA as a ‘submission group.’  In 2024, WGEA published employer gender pay gaps for nearly 5,000 ‘submission groups’, to ease the transition to publication for employers.

In 2025 WGEA has published private sector employer gender pay gaps for corporate groups, subsidiaries of corporate groups and standalone employers. This change has greatly increased the number of employer gender pay gaps WGEA will publish, and it will allow employees that work in a subsidiary of a larger corporate group to see their gender pay gap for the first time.

In short, it is only accurate to compare median to median employer gender pay gaps, where WGEA has reported the employer’s data in the same way in both years.

 

What does the data tell us?

 

Data Snapshot: colourful graphic containing lots of key data, such as half of employers have an average total remuneration gender pay gap larger than 12.1% and a median gender pay gap larger than 8.9%. it continues, 6.5% have an average gender pay gap in favour of women, 21.3% have an average neutral gender pay gap, 72.2% have an average gender pay gap in favour of men. 15.3% of employers have a median and an average in the target range, 1,130 employers in total.

 

The target range

The goal for employers is to maintain an average total remuneration and medial total remuneration gender pay gap within the target range of -5% to +5%.

Currently, 15.3% of employers are achieving this.

21% of employers have an average total remuneration gender pay gap inside the target range; leaving 79% of employers with a gender pay gap outside the target range.

The majority of employers pay men more on average than women. Fewer pay women more, on average, than men.

31% of employers have a median gender pay gap in the target range. 60.7% have a gender pay gap in favour of men, and 8.4% have a gender pay gap in favour of women.

 

Three columns, orange, yellow and blue. The orange says Average total remuneration GPG favours women - 474 or 6.5% employer have a gender pay gap that favours women, the yellow column reads Average total remuneration GPG neutral - 1584 or 21.3% employers have a neutral gender pay gap. The blue column reads Average total remuneration GPG favours men - 5,347 or 72.2% employers have a gender pay gap that favours men.

 

National midpoints

Blue and red lines on a white background, the x axis says Employer Gender Pay gap and the y axis says number of employers. The Blue line shows the average employer gpg 12.1% and the red line shows the median employer gpg 8.9%

 

The national gender pay gap mid-point is 12.1%.

This means half of employers have an average total remuneration gender pay gap above 12.1%, and the other half have a gender pay gap below 12.1%.

This is helpful to employers to understand how they compare with other employers across Australia.

The mid-point of the median total remuneration employer gender pay gap is 8.9%, a 0.2pp reduction from the previous year.

WGEA’s analysis focuses on average total remuneration gender pay gaps.

However, comparison against last year’s figures is only available for median employer gender pay gaps, as these were the only figures that were published last year.

 

Yellow graphs on white background reads 9.1% for 2022-23 and 8.9% for 2023-25, showing 0.2pp reduction on comparable employer gender pay gaps year on year.

 

Industry mid-points

The industry mid-points help employers understand how they compare to other companies in their respective industries.

In each industry, half of employers will have a gender pay gap above the industry mid-point, and the other half will have a gender pay gap below this point.

This graphic in blue and red on a white background charts the different gender pay gaps of the 19 different industries. For example the construction industry has a average midpoint of 25.3% in blue and a median midpoint of 26.3% in red.

 

Gender composition and average remuneration by pay quartile

National

Women in Australia are 1.5 times more likely to be paid in the lowest remuneration bracket, and men are 1.9 more likely to be employed in the upper pay bracket.

The average total remuneration in the highest pay quartile is 3.7 times higher than that in the lowest quartile.

A bar graph with men in blue and women in red, showing the different pay quartiles. For example, in the upper quartile 35% are women and 65% men. The upper middle quartile has 47% men and 53% women, the lower middle quartile is 42% men and 58% women and the lowest quartile 59% women and 41% men.

 

Industry workforce composition and average remuneration by quartile

Some industries face challenges attracting men or women.

Comparing an employer’s gender composition per pay quartile to the industry averages can show whether a particular employer has greater of fewer challenges attracting and retaining a particular gender to their workplace.

This table lists the 19 industries with their overall proportion of women, and the percentage of women in each pay quartile. For example, the first industry Education and training has 66% women overall, with its highest pay quartile 58% women, its upper middle quartile 69% women, its lower middle quartile 68% women and its lowest quartile 68% women.

 

The average remuneration in each pay quartile also varies significantly by industry.

WGEA has provided remuneration information for each quartile for each industry to assist with comparison and analysis of employer gender pay gaps.

 

This table lists the 19 industries by average total remuneration of each quartile. The first industry Accommodation and Food Services has an average total remuneration of $69,718. Its four quartiles, from highest to lowest are $115,076, $71,195, $57,661 and $34,940.

Employer gender pay gaps insights

There are a number of key insights which can be gleaned from the data.

Click through for more detailed information on each insight.

The over-representation of men in the upper quartile may be a significant driver for 2/3 of employer gender pay gaps.

The over-representation of men in the upper quartile may be a significant driver for 2/3 of employer gender pay gaps.

The average gender pay gap is influenced by high and low salaries. It will show if earnings are particularly concentrated for one gender. For example: more men in higher earning positions.

The median is not skewed by high or low salaries. This means it gives a good picture of typical earnings that exist within an organisation.

The difference between the average and the median can provide an important hint of what may be driving the gender pay gap for an organisation.

For gender pay gaps in favour of men

 • An average higher than the median means that a disproportionate number of men in high-income roles is having a greater impact on the gender pay gap, than a disproportionate number of women in lower-paying roles.

• An average lower than the median means that a disproportionate number of women in lower-paying roles has the greater impact.

For gender pay gaps in favour of women, if the average is higher than the median, this relationship still applies.

If the average is lower than the median, it may mean that women with high salaries are driving the gender pay gap in favour of women.

61% of employers have a higher average than median total remuneration gender pay gap.

39% have an average lower than the median.

Blue and red lines on a white background, the x axis says Employer Gender Pay gap and the y axis says number of employers. The Blue line shows the average employer gpg 12.1% and the red line shows the median employer gpg 8.9%

It is important to note this assessment is about the ‘larger impact’.

An employer’s gender pay gap could still be driven by both having more women in low paid roles and more men in higher-paid roles.

Big gaps between the highest earners and the lowest paid workers drives gender pay gaps. 

Women are less likely to work in the highest paying jobs in the economy..

The employer gender pay gap data shows a clear relationship between the proportion of women in the upper quartile of remuneration and the employer gender pay gap result.

These roles are not always management roles. They may be technician and trades roles or sales workers with opportunity for overtime and commissions.

Employers with neutral gender pay gaps tend to have balanced, or proportional, numbers of men and women in each quartile and in their total workforce.

Men-dominated employers, for example, may have a smaller proportion of women in their workforce, but if those women are represented equally at all remuneration levels in the organisation, the employer will not have a gender pay gap.

In contrast, employers with the highest gender pay gaps, show the greatest disparity between the proportion of women in the upper quartile, compared to the proportion of women in the workforce.

In general, the greater the difference, the higher the gender pay gap.

Where this relationship is negative, a higher proportion of women work in the upper quartile than the workplace proportion in total.

This results in a gender pay gap in favour of women and again, the greater this disparity, the larger the gender pay gap.

This graphic with red dots, a black line and a white background shows the representation of women in the overall workforce relative to the upper pay quartile, against the average total remuneration gpg

In every industry, men are more likely to be employed in the highest earning roles compared to their proportion in the workforce.

In contrast, women are over-represented in the lowest earning quartile compared to their representation in the industry in 17 out of 19 industries.

High-paying industries show the greatest disparity between men’s and women’s access to the highest paying roles.

This is the case even when the industry is gender-balanced.

Unlike the men-dominated employers that can struggle with a pipeline of talent, gender-balanced employers may be struggling with a promotion problem.

 

This table lists the 19 industries and what percentage of women are in the highest and lowest pay quartiles, along with the average total remuneration for those quartiles. For example, in the top industry Mining, women make up 16% of the highest pay bracket, and 35% of the lowest pay bracket.

 

Differing pay rates between industries is a key driver of the national gender pay gap, with more women working in lower-paid industries and more men in higher-paid industries.

Women are more likely to reach the upper quartile in lower paying industries.

However, the remuneration rates, even for the upper quartile, are significantly lower than those in men‑dominated or high-paying industries.

For example, women represent 46% of upper quartile employees in Accommodation and Food Services. But the average total remuneration for this group is equivalent to the lower remuneration quartile in Mining.

Employers in men-dominated industries are more likely to pay men more, on average.

4 out of 5 employers in men-dominated industries have a gender pay gap in favour of men.

This graphic shows the range of average total remuneration employer gender pay gaps by gender dominance of industry. In women-dominated industries, 12% have average total remuneration GPGs favouring women, 36% neutral, 52% favouring men. In men-dominated industries, 4% have average total remuneration GPGs favouring women, 13% neutral and 83% favouring men.

 

Of the 4 industries where 90% of employers pay men more on average than women, 3 are men-dominated.

This may be in part because many men-dominated industry employers have higher average total remuneration. The remaining industry in the top 4, Financial and Insurance Services, is a high-paying gender-balanced industry.

This colourful graphic lists the 19 different industries, showing their gender pay gaps favouring women in red, neutral in yellow and favouring men in blue. For example, the first industry Financial and Insurance Services shows 96% have a gender pay gap in favour of men, while 1% have a GPG favouring women.

 

Public Administration and Safety is the only industry with a majority of employers in the target range, but it does have the smallest number of employers that report to WGEA in the private sector Employer Census.

In addition to being more likely to have a gender pay gap in favour of men, employers in men-dominated industries are more likely to have a larger gender pay gap, as seen in the higher mid-points for this group of employers.

 

This graphic shows a line of people in the top half, with a white circle inside a grey circle which says 12.1 total workforce. Below this it says women-dominated industries 5.5 in a red circle, 13.2 for gender-balanced industries, inside a yellow circle, and on the right it says 16.1 for men-dominated industries, inside a blue circle.

 

 

This table lists the 19 industries with the percentage of employers with a gender pay gap above the 12.1% and the industry mid point. For example, the top women-dominated industry Education and Training has 23% of employers with a gender pay gap above 12.1%, and the mid-point of the industry gender pay gap is 7.6.

25% of employers in women-dominated industries have a gender pay gap above the national mid‑point of 12.1%. While this is a small proportion, the sheer number of employers in these industries (1,700) means that many of the highest GPGs in the nation are women‑dominated industry employers.


For many of these employers, women generally dominate the lower pay quartiles, in some cases at 100%, while men are more likely to be employed in the upper pay quartiles.

Of the 267 employers in healthcare with a gender pay gap above 12.1%, most operate in pathology, general and specialised medical services, dental, and optical services. Employers in aged care, residential care, childcare and other social services, which make up the larger proportion of employers in this industry, are less likely to have gender pay gaps in the highest 50%. This larger group of employers reduces the mid-point for this industry.

Employers that pay more are more likely to have larger gender pay gaps in favour of men.

 As the rate of average total pay rises, so too does the proportion of employer gender pay gaps that favour men, and the corresponding mid-point of employer gender pay gaps.

This table shows the breakdown of the mid-point and range of average gender pay gaps by average total remuneration. For example, in the salary category $50,000 - 42.5% of employers have a gender pay gap in favour of women, while 24.7% have a gender pay gap favouring men. in the $250,000+ salary range, just 1.7% of employers have a gender pay gap favouring women, and 93.1% have a gender pay gap favouring men.

Low paying employers in women-dominated industries are the most likely to pay women more than men.

 Just 6% of employers pay women more, on average, than men.

Where this does occur, the employer is more likely to be a smaller organisation.

They are also more likely to operate in industries with more women (Healthcare and Social Assistance, Education and Training and Retail) and have lower average pay.

Big gaps between the highest earners and the lowest paid workers drives gender pay gaps.

The size of the remuneration difference between the highest and lowest-paid roles also drives an employer’s gender pay gap, if the lower quartiles are dominated by one gender, and the upper quartiles dominated by another.

The larger the gap between the top earners and the lowest earners, the more likely an employer will have a high gender pay gap.

This is particularly the case when performance pay, superannuation and bonuses are included, as these discretionary payments are more likely to go to the top earners, who are more likely to be men.

This relationship can be seen in the trend that occurs between the industry mid-points and the difference between the average total remuneration in the lower and upper quartiles. The greater the difference, the greater the gender pay gap.

This graphic shows a black x and y axis, reading mid-point of average total remuneration GPGs and difference between lower and upper quartile remuneration and then a diagonal black dotted line. Along the line are grouped red, yellow and blue circles representing each industry and showing where they sit with their midpoint average compared to the difference in salary among the highest and lowest paid in that industry.

Men earn $11,204 more, on average, from superannuation and discretionary payments.

WGEA publishes both base salary and total remuneration employer gender pay gaps.

Total remuneration includes the base salary, superannuation, bonuses, overtime, and other additional payments.

The difference between the base salary and the total remuneration gender pay gap identifies whether one gender is gaining more benefit from these additional payments.

At a national level, women earn $11,204 less, on average, than men from these payments each year.

This graphic shows two yellow lines with a yellow circle at the right hand end. The top line says average gender pay gap mid point base salary % and 9.9% in the circle. The bottom line says Average gender pay gap midpoint total remuneration % and 12.1% in the circle.

 

The majority of employers have small differences between their base salary and total remuneration gender pay gaps.

But large gaps are evident in several high-paying industries. The additional payments tend to benefit employees in the highest-paid roles, who are more likely to be men.

 

This table lists the 19 industries with the mid-point of average total remuneration GPG, the midpoint of the base salary GPG, the average total remuneration, base salary total remuneration and the difference in dollars. For example, Mining, at the top, has an industry midpoint of average total remuneration of 19.8%, while the mid-point of its base salary is 16.6%. The average total remuneration is $195,141 and the base salary total remuneration is $139,860. The difference is $55,281.

Larger employers have smaller gender pay gaps.

The majority of employers (72%) pay men more, on average, than women. This is the case regardless of the size of the organisation.

This graphic shows the range of gender pay gaps by employer size. For example, among smaller companies, with less than 250 employees, 7% had a gender pay gap favouring women, 19% had a neutral GPG and 73% had a gender pay gap favouring men. In the biggest companies, with more than 5000 employees, 2% had a gender pay gap favouring women, 26% had a neutral GPG and 72% had a GPG favouring men.

 However, larger employers are more likely to have smaller gender pay gaps, which results in a lower mid-point for this group of employers.

 

This yellow and white graphic shows that employers with less than 250 employees had a GPG midpoint of 13.3%. Employers with 250-499 employees had a midpoint of 11.6, those with 500-599 employees had a midpoint of 11.0, those with 5000+ employees had a midpoint GPG of 9.0.

Progress is happening.

At a national level, 56% of employers reduced their average total remuneration gender pay gap, and 44% increased their gender pay gap.

In every industry, a majority of employers improved their gender pay gap between 2022–23 and 2023–24.

This may be in part because there was more attention on the gender pay gap in the lead up to publication of employer gender pay gaps for the first time in February 2024.

 

This list shows the 19 industries against the % of employers with an improved GPG and the % with a worsened GPG. Education and Training had 54% of employers improving on their GPG, Healthcare and Social Assistance had 56% improving. In Accommodation and Food Services 59% improved, Administrative and Support Services 55% improved. In Mining 57% improved, and in Electricity Gas, Water and Waste Services 61% improved.

Take action

Data Explorer

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Look up all the employer gender pay gap data for yourself, and read the accompanying Employer Statements, in WGEA's Data Explorer. 

End the Gender Pay Gap Campaign

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Have you taken our gender pay gap quiz? Take the End the Gender Pay Gap challenge and share your results with friends and family. 

Take Action

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Find out what you can do to take action and improve gender equality in your workplace, with lots of free resources including masterclasses, one-on-one advice and helpful guides.