November 1 - 30, 2025: Issue 648

employer action drives drop in gender pay gap for 2025 - Women still earning 21% less than men + Men earn nearly $10,000 more than women in bonuses and overtime pay, fuelling the gender pay gap: new data

Men working on widening the Wakehurst Parkway near Deep Creek in 1949

Thursday November 27, 2025

Action by Australian employers is narrowing Australia’s gender pay gap, according to a new report released by the Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA) today.

Australia’s Gender Equality Scorecard for 2024-25 reveals an above trend 0.7 percentage point (pp) drop in the gender pay gap to 21.1%, down from 21.8% last year. It means that for every $1 men earn, women earn, on average, 78.9 cents. This adds up to $28,356 in a year.

The Scorecard shows improvements in women in leadership roles and on Boards, in the upper quartile of earners and across the 6 key areas that drive fairer, safer, more equal workplaces.

WGEA CEO Mary Wooldridge said when the gender pay gap narrows, it signals employers are making progress towards meeting their employees' expectations of fair workplaces for everyone.

“Reductions to the pay gap and modest improvements towards gender-balance in leadership roles are underpinned by more employers having policies and taking action that can break down gender norms about leadership and caring responsibilities, as well as improving employee safety,” Ms Wooldridge said.

“Employers are shifting the dial towards fairness which is helping to close the gender pay gap.”

However, new data on CEO salaries – reported by all employers to WGEA for only the second time in 2025 – shows the gender pay gap at the top increased 1.2pp to 26.2% in the past 12 months. Women CEOs earn $83,493 less on average than men in base salary every year. When superannuation, bonuses, overtime and additional payments are included this difference increases to $185,335.

While the report identifies progress towards fairness and equality in workplaces, the rate of improvement is slow. Legislative reforms, including a new requirement for large employers to select and commit to achieve gender equality targets from 2026, are designed to accelerate that change.

“WGEA’s 2025 Gender Equality Scorecard also highlights opportunities for employers to improve by taking comprehensive actions based on data and evidence,” Ms Wooldridge said.

While 99% of employers have a policy to prevent sexual harassment, just 60% of employers had their policy reviewed by the Board. About one-third (36%) of Boards receive no training in this regard and one in 4 (24%) Boards have no data about sexual harassment prevalence reported to them.

“With positive duty requirements to prevent and eliminate unlawful behaviours such as sexual harassment it’s essential Boards are actively engaged and ensuring the workplace is safe for all employees,” Ms Wooldridge said.

There is further progress on men’s uptake of parental leave (up 3pp in 12 months to 20%). This follows a 3pp increase last year. It’s a positive sign of shifting expectations a new generation of fathers have about spending meaningful time with their young families.

“Employers should review their policies to ensure men have equal access to parental leave and flexible working arrangements. This should be supported by a culture that encourages and enables both men and women to use this leave,” Ms Wooldridge said.

The report also investigates how performance bonuses and allocation of overtime can drive pay inequality between women’s and men’s average earnings. It finds that men earn 60% more, on average, from these payments than women.

“WGEA encourages all employers to undertake a comprehensive gender pay gap analysis and as part of that review performance pay structures and access to overtime, to ensure they are fair and accessible for everyone,” Ms Wooldridge said.

“This should be an annual process, even if salaries are set by awards or market rates.”

Key information for 2024-25

The analysis in WGEA’s Scorecard uses information reported in 2025 by more than 8,200 employers, covering more than 5.4 million Australian workers.
the gender pay gap reduced 0.7 percentage points (pp) to 21.1%
for every $1 men earn, women earn 78.9 cents. Over a year, this adds up to a difference of $28,356
every State and Territory in Australia reduced their gender pay gap, with Western Australia recording the largest gap (28.8%) and Tasmania the smallest (10.6%),
men earn 60% more, on average, than women in discretionary payments (such as bonuses, allowances, overtime payments) and these additional payments make up a considerably larger percentage of total remuneration for men (12%) than women (6%)
men are taking a greater proportion of primary carer parental leave (20% of primary/universal parental leave is taken by men, an increase of 3pp)
22% of CEOs are women (no change in 12 months), 39% of key management personnel are women (up 2pp) and 43% of managers are women (1pp increase)
2 out of 3 (66%) employees work in an organisation dominated by one gender
women hold 33% of Board seats (up 1pp) and 21% of Chair roles (up 1pp) but nearly a quarter (24%) of Boards still have no women
50% of employers have a gender pay gap above 11.2% with only 22.5% of employers having a gender pay gap in target range of -5% to +5%

3 key areas of opportunity for employers:

ensuring workplace safety
improving gender-balance in the organisation and on Boards
dismantling stereotypes about leadership, work and caring.

Download or read the full report here

Men earn nearly $10,000 more than women in bonuses and overtime pay, fuelling the gender pay gap: new data

Leonora Risse, University of Canberra

Men are earning on average A$9,753 more than women each year in the form of performance bonuses, allowances and overtime pay.

That’s according to the latest gender pay gap data released on Thursday by the Workplace Gender Equality Agency. It covers more than 8,000 private companies for 2024–25, employing more than 5.4 million workers across Australia.

The overall gender pay gap fell to 21.1%, compared to 21.8% in 2023–24. But the gap in discretionary pay makes up a big chunk of the total gender pay gap of $28,356.

Where gaps in bonus and overtime are widest

The gender gap in discretionary remuneration – payments made on top of a worker’s base salary and excluding mandatory superannuation – balloons in particular industries.

In the rental, hiring and real estate industry, these additional payments average $34,618 annually for men and $14,154 for women. That’s a gap of $20,464.

In financial and insurance services, the gender gap in additional payments comes to $20,383. In electricity, gas, water and waste services, it’s $16,644.

Studies have found that when gender gaps have successfully narrowed, it’s generally the base salary component that has improved. The gap in discretionary payments is more stubborn.

Blame ‘greedy jobs’

Partly these gender differentials in discretionary payments are due to men working overtime hours, which are paid at a higher hourly rate.

But this gender pattern in overtime reflects rigid gender roles. While men work longer hours, women are shouldering the bulk of unpaid domestic labour and care in the home.

These patterns arise from employers’ expectations in many jobs that employees will be available 24/7 to work very long hours (such as in finance) or non-standard hours like weekends (such as in construction).

It’s what Nobel Prize-winning economist Claudia Goldin calls “greedy jobs”.

Longer hours are rewarded through bonuses and higher hourly pay rates. What’s the logical thing, financially, for households to do? For one partner to work the extra hours and leverage overtime rates, while the other takes the lion’s share of domestic work and care.

Greedy jobs cause couples to split their roles. And gender stereotypes get further entrenched.

Parental leave is growing among men

This brings us to another of the Workplace Gender Equality Agency’s latest findings on a policy that can undo these entrenched gender patterns: fathers’ usage of paid parental leave.

The agency measures the share of total paid parental leave that is been taken by men, with the remaining share being taken by women.

The share of all parental leave being taken by men grew to 20% in 2024-25, a rise of three percentage points from the year before.

These numbers need to be looked at alongside the gender composition of the workforce. Men’s 20% share of paid parental leave is still a minority considering men make up half of the workforce.

In male-dominated industries, we would expect men’s share of paid parental leave to be higher because men make up the majority of workers.

While mining is the industry with the largest share of paid parental leave being taken by men (53%), it’s still well below men’s 77% share of the industry.

The Workplace Gender Equality Agency notes that men’s uptake of paid parental leave jumped notably in the past year in the construction sector, up 12 percentage points to 39%. But that’s still well below men’s 79% share of that industry’s total workforce.

Among the industries with the biggest gaps between men’s share of the workforce and share of parental leave, men in transport, postal and warehousing take 24% of paid parental leave, despite making up 73% of the workforce.

Men working in wholesale trade take just 19% of paid parental leave, even though they make up 62% of the workforce.

Going beyond the minimum requirements

There’s also scope for more employers to offer paid parental leave above government-funded minimum entitlements. Availability is lowest in public administration and safety, and accommodation and food services, where only around one in three private sector employers offer company-funded parental leave.

Often, this type of benefit is used by companies as an attraction and retention tool. Industries with high rates of staff mobility, and less competition for workers, tend to see less payoff in these types of policies.

But often overlooked in debates about paid parental leave are the benefits to men, too.

There’s still much progress to make in shifting workforce culture to make it “the norm” that all parents have the opportunity to participate in caregiving.

By measuring and tracking Australian employers’ gender equality performance and policy actions, the agency’s annual scorecard helps employers and employees realise these benefits.

Anyone can now explore the agency’s data, including gender pay gaps for each industry and employer.

Leonora Risse, Associate Professor in Economics, University of Canberra

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.