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.
