Australia’s Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA) has published data revealing the gender pay gap among CEOs for the first time.
It shows female CEOs earn $158,632 less than their male counterparts per year.
The latest WGEA update also shows the overall gender pay gap dropped to 21.1% in 2023/24, down 0.6% from the previous year.
The WGEA says that while progress is being made, every job and industry still has a gender pay gap.
Pay gap data
The WGEA publishes data across the private and public sectors.
This gender gap is a measurement of the average full-time earnings of men and women across the workforce. It doesn’t refer to men and women being paid differently for the same job.
The data is captured in an annual “scorecard”, which reflects the gap between the total remuneration of male and female employees. This includes salary, bonuses and extra payments, such as commissions from sales.
CEOs
The latest scorecard included pay gaps for CEOs, Heads of Business, and casual managers for the first time.
It found that one in four CEOs/heads of business are women. On average, women in these positions are paid $158,632 less than men per year.
Data also showed that one in four company boards did not include any women.
The WGEA concluded: “The higher the manager level, the larger the difference between total remuneration and base salary gender pay gaps.”
Pay gap
In 2022/23, the national gender pay gap was 21.7%.
This data did not include the remuneration of CEOs and Heads of Business.
Using the same analysis, the 2023/24 gender pay gap dropped to 21.1%.
However, when you include CEO and Head of Business data, the pay gap increased to 21.8%.
Using this metric, on average, women earn $28,425 a year less than men.
The WGEA said more businesses and organisations had reported their gender pay gaps this year.
Of the employers to analyse their gender pay gap, 75% said they’re taking action based on the results, up from 60% a year earlier.
WGEA chief executive Mary Wooldridge said: “Our results suggest the anticipated publication of employer gender pay gaps had a motivational effect”.
“Business leaders are being challenged to articulate the drivers of their gap and how they will address it.”
