Major new research has found that men are paid more than women in 98% of occupations, with female workers in Australia typically paid 70 cents for every $1 earned by their male colleague after a decade in work.
The 30% average pay gap across workplaces identified in Jobs and Skills Australia’s new report stretches to nearly 40% for First Nations women.
Megan Lilly, a JSA deputy commissioner, said the fact that men were paid more than women on average in almost all of the 688 occupations analysed in the landmark report was even more remarkable when considering the substantial range of workplaces where women dominate.
Experts blame the persistent gender pay gap in large part on the “motherhood penalty” – the phenomenon where Australian women’s earnings drop by 55% in the five years after having their first child.
A higher likelihood of returning to part-time rather than full-time work, and missed opportunities for promotion during time away, mean that penalty is only slightly improved 10 years after giving birth.
Less than two weeks out from Jim Chalmers’ economic reform roundtable, Lilly said “politicians and policymakers need to grapple with these findings and find strategies and policies to deal with economic inequality”.
“Gender occupational segregation is actually a handbrake on our economy.”
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More gender-balanced occupations tended to have more equal pay, but the research revealed these jobs were in a minority: only one in five Australian workers were in occupations with a relatively equal mix of men and women.
The report also showed that gender segregation in Australian workplaces was proving stubborn to shift: in about seven in 10 occupations there had been no progress on gender balance in 15 years.
Ambulance officers and paramedics, dentists, and barristers were roles that had become less male-dominated, while vets and school principals had moved from gender parity to moderately higher shares of women.
But gender segregation was most acute in lower-skilled occupations, where there had been little change in the mix of men and women in a decade-and-a-half.
While no occupation showed meaningfully higher pay for women over men, the report found that occupational pay gaps widen to be at their worst among the most segregated occupations – regardless of whether they were male- or female-dominated.
Female registered nurses, for example, were paid $89,720 on average, or 21% less than the $114,420 typically paid to their male peers. That’s despite women accounting for 90% of that workforce and only working 10% fewer hours.
Even in the case of childcare – where almost the entire workforce were women – men were typically paid 14% more: $56,240, versus $48,340, according to the JSA’s analysis of Australian Taxation Office data.
Amid a nationwide shortage of workers in key areas of the economy, the report also showed that the most gender segregated occupations – such as in blue collar construction, and “pink” collar nursing and aged care – were also where these labour shortages were at their most acute.
Lilly said essentially excluding half of the population from certain occupations was part of the problem.
“Gender segregation is exacerbating skill shortages, exacerbating the pay gap, and too many cohorts of women are disadvantaged. And this is all at the expense of a more inclusive and productive society,” she said.
“Fix segregation and you fix occupational shortages and gender pay gaps.”
