On the day the Australian women’s soccer team, the Matildas, lost their semi-final match to England on August 17, some very important data was released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) that attracted little media attention or public discussion.
The gap in average weekly ordinary full-time earnings, the most commonly cited of the gender pay gap measures from the ABS, fell for the second straight cycle to the lowest level on record, down to 13.0%.
The ABS data showed average weekly ordinary time earnings for full-time males was $1,938 in May 2023, and for females, it was $1,686. That represents a gap of around 13%, or how much less women earn as a proportion of full-time male wages, the narrowest gap on record.
The difference in average full-time wages amounts to around $13,000 each year.
The recent narrowing in the gap has been driven by a bigger rise in women’s full-time wages than men’s and stronger employment growth; full-time adult average weekly total earnings for women jumped 4.6% over the year to May, well above growth in male average weekly earnings of 3.6%.
Female full-time employment stood at 3,875,300 in June, up strongly from 3,654,700 in June 2022, a rise of around 6%. That compares to an increase in male full-time employment of 2.7% over the same period, separate ABS data show.
Great news indeed!
This opened an opportunity for one of my clients to comment on the data – and she was rewarded with excellent media coverage. If you’d like to comment on data that matters, I can help you develop media commentary that is important and on the money.
OECD gender gap measure even narrower than ABS’s
While the ABS uses ‘average’ wages to determine the gender wages gap, the OECD uses ‘median’ wages for its measure, which is more representative of the wage levels of most men or women as it sits in the middle.
The OECD defines the gender wage gap across developed nation as the difference between median earnings of men and women relative to median earnings of men. The median separates the higher half from the lower half; whereas averages can be skewed by extremes at either end.
So, while the ABS is telling us that the gender wage gap is 13%, OECD data says it is 10%. The chart below from the OECD shows Australia now leads many other developed nations with a narrower gender wage gap ,and below the OECD average at around 12% – and a stark contrast to the gender wage in Korea, where it is the widest at 31% and Israel at 25%. In the US it is around 17%, in the UK around 14.5%.
Australian women are doing better than their peers in other developed nations, as this chart shows.
Source: OECD
So, the good news indeed, that the gender wages gap is narrowing. Hopefully next time the news will receive the coverage it deserves!
Data in context
All data, however, needs context.
On a more sobering note, once you include bonuses and overtime payments, and annualise casual wages, the gender wages gap is much wider, at 23%.
That is a total remuneration gender gap that is, all the money we receive from work, not just full time wages, according to the Workplace Gender Equality Agency.
So, for every $1 on average a man makes, women earn 77.2c. Over the course of a year, that difference adds up to $25,596.
The 22.8% gender pay gap includes base salary, overtime, bonuses and additional payments. It also includes the annualised full time equivalent salaries of casual and part time workers.
So, there is still work to be done to eliminate the gap entirely.
How can your voice be heard?
If you’d also like to comment on economic facts that matters, I can help you develop media commentary that is not only important, but on the money.
Email me at nicki@spotoncpr.com.