In a 2015 paper in the Cambridge Journal of Economics, two labour market experts argued that the government's "wavering political commitment to equality legislation generally suggest gender pay inequity will remain a persistent feature of Australian employment.
"[4] A report commissioned by the Australian Government in 2016 found that sex discrimination was the leading driver of Australia's gender pay gap, followed by longer interruptions in work-life for women, and industry and occupational segregation.
[5][6] In 1902, a union campaign [7] lead to equal pay for women working in the newly-established Commonwealth Public Service as telegraphists and “postmistresses.” In 1907, in Ex parte H.V.
Higgins of the Commonwealth Court of Conciliation and Arbitration determined that "fair and reasonable" wages for an unskilled male worker required a living wage that was sufficient for "a human being in a civilised community" to support a wife and three children in "frugal comfort", while a skilled worker should receive an additional margin for their skills, regardless of the employer's capacity to pay.
The work of packing at the factory was "essentially adapted for women with their superior deftness and the suppleness of fingers" and this apparently justified a lower minimum wage of 9 pence per hour, which would provide for the woman's food, shelter and clothing but not that of her family.
[10] Due to labour shortages and union activism a minority of women, such as hotel workers in Victoria and South Australia, were able to secure wage parity during the war.
[19] New South Wales (NSW) was the first Australian industrial jurisdiction to legislate for equal pay in the Female Rates (Amendment) Act in 1958.
A 2009 report by the National Center for Social and Economic Modelling (NATSEM) prepared for the Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs stated: "Utilising robust microeconomic modelling techniques, based on a comprehensive and critical evaluation of several methodologies, we found that simply being a woman is the major contributing factor to the gap in Australia, accounting for 60 per cent of the difference between women’s and men’s earnings, a finding which reflects other Australian research in this area.
)[25]Data collected by NATSEM for the Catalyst Australia publication, Equality Speaks, found that the gap between the average wealth of men and women also varies according to the occupations and industries in which they are engaged.
The greatest disparity between the average wealth of men and women is amongst elementary clerical, sales and service workers ($110 400 versus $19 900).
He concluded that "the notion of a ‘glass ceiling', whereby women struggle to advance beyond some point in the more typical career path, is certainly prevalent in the Australian labour market.
[28] In November 2024, a government report revealed that Australia's gender pay gap narrowed marginally to 21.8%, a 0.6 percentage point improvement from the previous year.
The Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA) noted that over half of employers improved pay equity for men and women performing the same roles.
In that data the ABC listed the top 10 occupations that had the biggest pay gaps, based on average taxable income.