Gender Equity Insights 2023: Accelerating the pace of change

The eighth report in the Gender Equity Insights series from the Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre (BCEC) and the Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA) looks at the gender equality strategies at nearly 4,800 Australian employers to determine what factors are accelerating change and closing gender pay gaps. Using data reported to WGEA in 2019 and 2022, the report indicates employers that have taken deliberate, long-term action in their workplaces get results, finding the best performing Australian companies recorded a 5.3pp drop in their gender pay gaps in three years. However, the analysis also exposes a deep divide within industry sectors between the best performing businesses – those that are making progress to close their gender pay gaps – and the worst performers. Mining, manufacturing and retail trade as well as the professional, scientific and technical services sector are among the industry sectors where this difference is most pronounced. The new report compares the policies and actions of companies that are advanced in their approach to gender equality against those that are early in their journey, to develop a new roadmap to inform employer action. The analysis benchmarks the performance of organisations based on their approach to pay equity strategies, recruitment and retention and other policies and actions aimed at driving progress, such as parental leave, family and caregiving, and sex-based harassment.