In 2022–23, fewer than one in 14 (7%) managers worked part-time.
For Key Management Personnel, the percentage falls to 5%, and for CEOs it is 3%.
Quality part-time work can be hard to find, and research suggests that an increase in the proportion of women working part-time in senior roles is driven more by women already in these roles seeking reduced hours, rather than part-time employees being promoted into manager roles.
Women who work part-time in low-paid occupations are particularly at risk of falling victim to the ‘sticky floor’ phenomenon, where opportunities for progression are scarce.
A lack of part-time manager roles for women can also stem from a significant gender pay gap at manager levels: research conducted by the Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre (BCEC) using WGEA data found that gender pay gaps at the combined management level work to reduce the share of part-time women managers by 7.9 percentage points.
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In May 2024, the Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA) presented a submission to the ASX Corporate Governance Council.
Download the latest WGEA parliamentary submissions.
WGEA commissioned this paper in response to recommendation 3.1a of the review of the Workplace Gender Equality Act 2012.