New government data has revealed progress on closing the workplace gender pay gap has stalled for the first time, with women on average earning $26,596 less than men.
Mary Wooldridge, director of the Workplace Gender Equality Agency, said “too many employers have failed to step up”, leading to a pay gap of 22.8 per cent.
Although the number of female chief executives in Australia has risen slightly from last year, the agency’s data revealed only 22 per cent of CEOs are women.
Men are more likely to hold managerial positions, even in female-dominated industries such as healthcare and education, the report found, despite research showing that profitability and productivity increase under female leadership.
Women were still grossly underrepresented in the boardroom.
Just 20 per cent of boards are gender-balanced, while more than one in five boards have no women at all.
Since 2014, the number of boards without women has dropped from 37 per cent to 22 per cent, the data showed.
But 72 per cent of boards are still comprised of a significant majority of men, greater than 60 per cent male.
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Less than one per cent of boards are comprised of only women.
Wooldridge said the stagnant gender pay gap was a signal for employers to pick up the pace by implementing policies and practices to improve gender equality.
“Too many employers have failed to step up on gender equality leaving many women no better off than they were 12 months ago,” she said.
“If you’re not making progress on these things, your employees will realise there are others who are.”
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