Australia's gender pay gap narrows to 21.1% in 2025

Australia's gender pay gap has narrowed again, according to the Workplace Gender Equality Agency's latest Gender Equality Scorecard.

Spanning the past 12 months, the employer census revealed that the national gender pay gap has dropped by 0.7 percentage points to 21.1%, from 21.8% last year. Every state and territory reduced their gender pay gap with Western Australia recording the largest gap (28.8%) and Tasmania the smallest (10.6%).

For every $1 men earn, women earn 78.9 cents on average, a difference of $28,356 per year.

WGEA chief executive Mary Wooldridge said: "Employers are shifting the dial towards fairness which is helping to close the gender pay gap."

The report spotlighted corresponding improvements to women in leadership roles.

According to the study, women's representation in management increased 1 percentage point to 43% with women making up 39% of key management personnel (up 2 percentage points) in the last year. This is largely due to internal appointments and promotions of non-managers, the report said.

Although there has been no change to the rate of women in chief executive roles (22%) in the last 12 months.

This is a positive indicator that employers are dismantling internal challenges for women accessing management, the report said.

Concurrently, the proportion of employers with formal policy to support gender-balance on boards has increased 1 percentage point to 44% in the last year.

The study also underscored that women represented in the upper quartile of earners has increased by 1 percentage point this year and decreased by equal amount in the lower quartile.

In contrast, the report identified that the manager gender pay gap has increased proportional to the level of seniority.

Findings revealed that women chief executives earn $83,493 less on average in base salary to their male counterparts each year. This disparity increases to $185,335 when superannuation, bonuses, overtime and additional payments are considered.

These imbalances result in an average total remuneration gender pay gap of 26.2% with an increase of 1.2 percentage points in the last 12 months.

The report highlighted progress towards creating fairer, safer and more equal workplaces. This includes more support for employees experiencing family or domestic violence and increased action against sexual harassment.

However, while 99% of employers have a policy to prevent sexual harassment, only 60% of employers had their policy reviewed by the board in the last year. Around 36% of boards received no training in this regard and one in four (24%) had no data about sexual harassment reported to them in the last year.

Meantime, workplaces are increasingly encouraging new fathers to take parental leave, the report identified 20% of primary and universal parental leave is taken by men, up 3 percentage points since last year.

"Employers should review their policies to ensure men have equal access to parental leave and flexible working arrangements. This should be supported by a culture that encourages and enables both men and women to use this leave," she said.

Although progress is being made towards a fair and equal workplace, the rate of improvement is slow, with the report calling for legislative reforms to set renewed gender equality targets for 2026.

"Reductions to the pay gap and modest improvements towards gender balance in leadership roles are underpinned by more employers having policies and taking action that can break down gender norms about leadership and caring responsibilities, as well as improving employee safety," Wooldridge said.

Although women are increasingly holding more board seats at 33% (up 1 percentage point), 24% of boards have not included any female members. The census also revealed that 50% of employers have a gender pay gap above 11.2% with only 22.5% of employers having a gender pay gap in the target range of -5% to +5% in 2025.

"WGEA's 2025 Gender Equality Scorecard also highlights opportunities for employers to improve by taking comprehensive actions based on data and evidence," Wooldridge said.

Setting goals for progress in the new year, the report urged employers to look towards ensuring workplace safety, improving gender-balance on boards and dismantling stereotypes about leadership, work and caring.

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