Australia’s latest workplace gender equality data has exposed stark disparities in pay across major industries, revealing that women continue to earn significantly less than their male counterparts despite decades of equality initiatives. The Workplace Gender Equality Agency’s comprehensive report, covering nearly 8,000 companies, shows that nationally, women earn just 78 cents for every dollar earned by men – a gap of 22% that translates to $28,425 less annually.
The data reveals a troubling pattern: companies with higher average salaries tend to have larger gender pay gaps, with some organizations paying men more than twice what they pay women. From radio stations with 51% disparities to banks where gender imbalances persist at executive levels, the findings highlight how far Australia still has to go in achieving workplace equality.
Broadcasting Industry Shows Extreme Disparities
The media presents some of the most dramatic examples of gender pay inequality, with Radio 2GB Sydney leading the pack with an astounding 51.1% gender pay gap favoring men. This means that for every dollar earned by male employees at 2GB, women earn less than 49 cents. The station also commands the second-highest average total remuneration in news media at $149,000, with only Fairfax Media Publications exceeding this at $152,000.
However, the media industry isn’t uniformly problematic. Several companies have achieved near-perfect pay equality, including Guardian Australia with a 3.5% gap favoring women, Australian Associated Press with just 0.5% favoring men, and News Life Media maintaining a modest 2.5% gap. Television networks show more moderate disparities, with Network 10 achieving the smallest gap at 5.4%, while Foxtel Group has the largest at 18.1%.
Radio as a sector demonstrates particularly concerning trends, with Southern Cross Austereo, Nova, and ARN all maintaining gaps between 13% and 15%. Out-of-home media companies like JCDecaux and Ooh Media show similar patterns with 17-18% gaps.
Supermarket Chains: Size Matters for Equality
The supermarket sector tells a different story, with larger companies generally achieving better gender pay outcomes. This aligns with national trends showing that bigger organizations tend to have smaller gender pay gaps. Among major supermarket chains, most maintain relatively modest disparities compared to other industries.
7-Eleven stands out as an exception among large supermarkets, with the highest gender pay gap at 15.3% and an average total remuneration package of $169,000. The company’s own analysis reveals that gender imbalance in leadership roles, particularly at senior levels, drives this disparity. Woolworths, with over 162,000 employees nationwide, maintains a 10.7% gender pay gap.
In terms of compensation, Aldi stores offer competitive packages with average total remuneration of $90,000, nearly double that of smaller chains like Ritchies Stores at $48,000. The data suggests that scale and corporate structure play significant roles in both pay levels and gender equity outcomes.
Banking Sector: High Pay, Persistent Gaps
The banking industry presents a complex picture of high salaries coupled with significant gender disparities. The average income across the banking sector reaches $116,000, with executives in the upper quartile earning $215,000 – 3.7 times more than lower quartile staff at $58,000.
Macquarie Bank emerges as a clear outlier, offering exceptional compensation with an average of $219,000 and upper-quartile earnings of $487,000, but maintaining a substantial 41.8% gender pay gap. Commonwealth Bank shows more moderate figures with upper quartile income at $288,000 and an average of $164,000.
The big four banks typically offer average total compensation around $160,000 annually while maintaining gender pay gaps of approximately 20%. A concerning pattern emerges in workforce composition: women represent 67% of lower quartile banking employees but only 36% of upper quartile executives.
Perhaps most troubling is the industry’s approach to gender equality initiatives. Only 61% of surveyed banks have objectives to achieve gender pay equity, and merely 45% maintain explicit goals to close gender pay gaps.
The Broader Picture: Wealth and Inequality
The data reveals a stark correlation between company wealth and gender inequality. The highest-paying company nationally, real estate firm Goodman Ltd, offers an average salary of $766,000 but maintains a 66.4% gender pay gap. Financial services companies Optiver Pty Limited ($693,000 average) and Canaccord Genuity Australia Limited ($672,000 average) show similarly extreme disparities at 63.6% and 68.5%, respectively.
Across all surveyed employers, 72.2% maintain gender pay gaps favoring men, while only 6.5% show gaps favoring women. This comprehensive data underscores that despite legislative efforts and corporate commitments to equality, substantial work remains to achieve genuine pay parity across Australian workplaces.