Large employers are set to gain an extra 12 months to bed down new "genuine and measurable" gender equality targets before they have to identify fresh ones and start the next three-year reporting cycle.
The gender pay gap has narrowed by 0.7 percentage points to 21.1% over the past 12 months, driven by a larger increase in women's average base salary (up $3,419 or 4%) than achieved by men ($2,895 or 2.8%), the annual WGEA Gender Equality Scorecard reveals.
The Federal public sector gender pay gap has more than halved in a year, falling from 13.5% to 6.4%, but employers could still improve on men's uptake of paid parental leave, according to a new WGEA report that includes individual agencies' remuneration disparities for the first time.
A Senate inquiry is calling for guidance on what will qualify as a "reasonable excuse" for failing to comply with a Bill requiring employers with 500 or more workers to set new publicly-tracked gender equality targets that could determine eligibility for government contracts, while the Greens want to lower the threshold to 100 or more employees.
