Since 2024, the Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA) has been publishing the gender pay gaps of Australia’s largest companies. Now, we have enough data to make some meaningful comparisons – and this public spotlight seems to be paying off.

Today, the agency released its latest employer gender pay gaps report. Drawing on this data, my calculations show the average gender gap in total pay fell from 13.1% to 12.7% between 2023-24 and 2024-25.

That’s based on more than 7,000 organisations that provided their numbers for both years.

While the gender pay gap narrowed in more than half of these employers, driving the overall improvement, it still widened in about 45%.

There are signs that companies are, on the whole, heading in the right direction. But gender pay gaps still overwhelmingly favour men. There’s still work to do – especially at Australia’s major banks and airlines.

Overall, today’s release gives us data on 10,500 employers and 5.9 million workers in the public and private sectors.

The WGEA has a target gender pay gap range of -5% to 5%, suggesting an employer doesn’t significantly favour men or women.

Only one in five private companies covered in today’s release fall into this range, compared to roughly two in five Commonwealth public sector employers.

Around seven in ten private employers have a gender pay gap........

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