SYDNEY, Nov. 28 (Xinhua) -- The gender pay gap in Australia has fallen 1.1 percentage points to a new low of 21.7 percent in 2023, a new report said on Tuesday.
More women in management drives a decline in the gender pay gap, but every industry and almost three in four employers still have a gender pay gap larger than 5 percent in favor of men, the Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA) said in its annual update on the state of workplace gender equality.
It's a decrease of 1.1 percentage points from 22.8 percent in 2022, the second largest single-year drop since WGEA started collecting employer data in 2014.
It means on average, for every 1 Australian dollar men earn in Australia, women earn 78 cents.
The average annual pay difference between men and women has narrowed by 1,322 dollars, but a gap of 26,393 dollars remains, the report said.
The key driver of the lower gender pay gap is an increase in the proportion of women in management and in the upper pay quartiles. The proportion of women managers is now at 42 percent, up from 41 percent last year, according to the report.
"Increased discussion and debate around gender equality, a tight labor market and impending legislative reform have helped drive action on workplace gender equality over the last year," WGEA chief executive officer Mary Wooldridge was quoted as saying in a news release. ■