Australia’s labour market has seen significant changes since the pandemic, with notable progress in gender equality. Many of the gaps between female and male employment outcomes have been narrowing in recent years, reflecting broader societal trends toward more gender equality in the workplace.
One of the most important achievements is the reduction in the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) “headline” gender pay gap, which dropped to 11.5% in May 2024 (calculated from ABS Average Weekly Earnings) — the lowest it has ever been. This figure compares the earnings of full-time men and women as groups, without considering differences in hours worked or specific roles. A decade ago, the gap was 18.3%, so the narrowing of this gap indicates progress in wages when considering men and women as groups.
However, when looking at total earnings – which accounts for variations in hours worked, overtime, and bonuses – the gender pay gap widens to 27.7%. It measures what we might consider “take home pay”. It is higher due to the fact that women are more likely to work part-time, and less likely to work in roles which have access to additional pay components on top of ordinary wages.
While the total earnings gap is high, it is at its lowest level historically and has shown steady improvement over the past ten years. This reduction in the total earnings gap indicates a shift toward a more equitable distribution of income, even as women continue to face structural challenges that limit their earnings potential.
Alongside progress in wages, the gender gap in hours worked decreased to 16.2% in May 2024. This gap highlights the ongoing differences in employment patterns, with women more likely to engage in part-time or flexible work arrangements than men. This gap is steadily declining as women are becoming more likely to work full- rather than part time hours.
The remaining hours gap compounds the wages gap, leading to long-term disparity in men’s and women’s earnings. Both the wages and hours gaps contribute to women earning less over their lifetimes than men, with consequences for financial security, superannuation and retirement.
Wage disparities remain a challenge. The wage gap, reflecting differences in average hourly pay, was 13.7% in May 2024. This gap is mainly due to women often working in lower-paying occupations and industries, and less senior positions within them.
This indicator is quite volatile, reflecting the ups and downs of wages for female-dominated roles in comparison to male-dominated, within the labour market. For example, the wages gap expanded considerably during the mining boom, due to significant pay increases flowing to (male dominated) roles in the mining industry.
Unlike the gender pay and hours gaps, the wages gap hasn’t declined over time. A decade ago, the indicator was at 13.9%, marginally higher than today.
Many industries have made significant progress on the gender pay gap. Surprisingly, it is male-dominated industries which have performed best. For example, manufacturing halved its gender pay gap to 10.6% over the last decade; while construction slashed it from 17.5% to 7.5% over the last five years.
In contrast, some female-dominated dominated industries haven’t performed as well. Administrative and support services show little reduction in the gender pay gap, while education and training has fallen only marginally. Healthcare and social assistance has reduced its gap from 30.7% to 20.7%, but remains one of the highest in the country.
There have been significant gains in employment of women. The female unemployment rate was 3.9% in July 2024, lower than the male rate of 4.5%. This lower rate for women reflects strong job growth in industries such as healthcare and education, which have bounced back post-pandemic.
Nevertheless, underemployment remains a concern. As of February 2024, the female underemployment rate was 7.9%, higher than the male rate of 5.4%. Although the gender gap in underemployment has narrowed since the pandemic, it remains a barrier to achieving full economic equality.
One of the most positive developments is the record-high female labour market participation rate, which reached 63.2% in July 2024. This shows that more women are joining the workforce, driven in part by economic recovery, more supportive environments for female employment and tight labour supply. The gender participation gap is now the narrowest it has ever been at 8%.
While Australia’s labour market has made significant improvements toward gender equality, there are still challenges to overcome. To reach equality, continued efforts are needed to address gaps in hours worked, industry wage disparities, underemployment and working conditions. By maintaining the conditions leading to this progress Australia is on track to be closer to achieving gender equality in the workplace.
Dr Jeenat Binta Jabbar is an Economist at the Australian Industry Group, specialising in labour, migration, wellbeing, poverty, and inequality. With her experiences in NGOs, non-profits, humanitarian, and academia, Jeenat worked for incorporating and improving evidence-based policies and programs. Jeenat also has a good background of business informatics, combining economics in her Master program at Ural Federal University, Russia. She completed her PhD in Economics from RMIT university.
