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Data shows persistent gender pay gap in financial, insurance industry
Despite being considered a “gender-balanced” industry, a new outlook on the gender pay gap in Australia has flagged the ongoing challenges in pay equity in financial and insurance services.
Just one-fifth (21 per cent) of Australian employers have an average gender pay gap in the target range of -5 per cent and +5 per cent, new results released by the Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA) have shown.
Across all industries in the 2023–24 gender pay gap results, nearly three-quarters (72 per cent) of all employers pay men more, on average, than women.
In its latest gender pay gap report, WGEA revealed that the midpoint employer gender pay gap was 12.1 per cent. This means that half of employees have an average total remuneration gender pay gap above 12 per cent, and half of employers have below this figure.
The midpoint of the median total remuneration employer gender pay gaps was 8.9 per cent, a 0.2 percentage point reduction year-on-year.
Notably, as of 21 February, financial and insurance services had a remuneration midpoint of 22.2 per cent, second only to construction.
Four industries had at least 90 per cent of employers pay men more on average than women, with financials, at 96 per cent, being the only industry out of these that isn’t actually considered male-dominated.
Looking at the proportion of women in each pay quartile within the sector, women made up 53 per cent of the total financial and insurance services employees and is considered a “gender balanced” industry by WGEA.
However, 67 per cent of the lower quartile were made up of women and 60 per cent of women comprised the employees in the lower-middle quartile.
Moreover, women only made up 36 per cent of the upper quartile, although they represented 48 per cent of the upper middle quartile.
The report, which marks the second publication of employer gender pay gaps, has published the results for 7,800 individual employers and 1,700 corporate groups.
WGEA’s data highlighted high-paying employers are the most likely to have a gender pay gap in favour of men and a larger gender pay gap.
However, WGEA chief executive Mary Wooldridge said that progress has been made to end the gender pay gap, with indicators showing that around 15 per cent of employers are already in the target range of +/-5 per cent for both of its measures.
“Each employer has a unique set of circumstances that impacts the size of their gender pay gap,” Wooldridge said.
She explained that, where an employer’s gender pay gap is beyond the target range, it indicates one gender is more likely to be over-represented in higher-paying roles compared with the other.
This, Wooldridge said, can be indicative of structural or cultural differences for one gender within an occupation, organisation or broader industry.
“For employers that haven’t made progress, it’s time to ask why – dig into the data to find out what’s causing any gender differences and use evidence-based solutions to address them,” she said.
“The new results, which use information reported by employers covering the time period immediately leading up to WGEA’s first release of gender pay gaps, suggests anticipation of publication generated positive flow-on effects.”
The analysis also shows 56 per cent of employers reduced their gender pay gap in the last year, alongside a significant increase in employers conducting a gender pay gap analysis on their pay and composition to find out what’s driving their gaps. Moreover, consultation with employees rose significantly.
“It’s promising to see the big increase in the number of employers working to understand what is driving their gender pay gap, beyond unequal pay,” Wooldridge added.
“Over the past year, employers have told us that publication of employer gender pay gaps is a catalyst to assess gender-based differences in all areas of their workplace.
“For men, a more equal pay experience could involve their employer providing access to paid parental leave, paying superannuation on that leave and supporting a flexible return to work.
“For women, it could mean their employer is redesigning manager roles that will enable those roles to be undertaken on a part-time basis or as a job share. This action can create new pathways to career progression for employees with caring or other responsibilities outside of work, or by actively broadening the pipeline of talent across occupations and job roles.”
Wooldridge concluded: “What is common to each is purposeful action that breaks down traditional notions of what it means to be a worker and carer in the contemporary workplace.”
AUTHOR
Jessica Penny
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