Media release

We welcome the recommendations from the Review of the Workplace Gender Equality Act 2012These recommendations draw from leading practice around the world about how to improve gender equality in workplaces.

 

Twelve days out from International Women’s Day, the Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA) has today announced Australia’s new national gender pay gap of 13.8%, a drop of 0.4 percentage points over the past 6 months from 14.2%.

Australia’s latest annual report card on gender equality has revealed a mixed result from workplaces, with small improvements in the results barely making inroads on the overall persistent and sizeable pay gaps, and decision-making structures still dominated by men.

New data released today (8 February) reveals 3 in 5 employers are now offering paid parental leave, the vast majority of those making paid leave equally available for both parents.

A new report out today has for the first time examined the experiences of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women inside Australian workplaces, revealing that Indigenous mums and carers are the most likely group to experience discrimination.

In the lead up to International Equal Pay Day on 18 September, WGEA Director Mary Wooldridge wrote this piece published on Lifehacker Australia with five key facts about the gender pay gap in Australia today.

How did you mark Equal Pay Day this year? Here at WGEA it’s a bittersweet occasion – progress on closing the gap has slowed (and in fact gone backwards this year), but it is a great opportunity to raise awareness of the issues and solutions.

Australian women in 2021 have had to work about two months more, on average, to earn the same as men did last financial year.

Equal Pay Day 2021 recognises that it has taken until 31 August to close the national gender pay gap, which is 14.2%, a rise of 0.8 percentage points over the last six months.

The Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA) has today released the new national gender pay gap figure of 14.2%, a rise of 0.8 percentage points over the last six months. This means Equal Pay Day 2021 will be on 31 August, marking the 61 extra days from the end of the previous financial year that women, on average, must work to earn the same annual pay as men.

A new report shows that although progress has been made in recent years to reduce the gender pay gap in Australia, it will still take more than a quarter of a century to close it.