Australian men twice as likely to be highly paid than women: report

Australian men are twice as likely to be highly paid than women, a government report has found.

The Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA) on Friday published its latest data on the gender pay gap.

Based on the earnings of more than 4 million employees between April 2020 and March 2021, it revealed that men, on average, earn 25,792 Australian dollars (18,371 U.S. dollars) more per year than women.

It equates to a gender pay gap of 22.8 percent, a slight fall from 23.3 percent the previous year, meaning that for every 10 Australian dollars a man earned, a woman made 7.72 Australian dollars.

One third of male employees make more than 120,000 Australian dollars per year, as likely as females, while women are 50 percent more likely to earn less than 60,000 Australian dollars .

Seventy-three percent of Australian employers have pay gaps in favor of men while 7 percent favor women and 20 percent have achieved parity.

"From the very top-down, women are undervalued in Australian businesses and underrepresented where decisions are made," Mary Wooldridge, director of the WGEA, said in a media release.

"Our latest insights show this pattern clearly: 22 percent of all boards still don't have a single woman in the room; and about three quarters of all boards have a vast majority (over 60 percent) of men," she said.

"Of those heavily male-dominated boards, only 12 percent have set a target to increase the representation of women, and on average that target is only 35 percent -- not even what is generally considered a balanced board," she added.

The construction industry had the biggest gender pay gap, with men earning 30 percent more on average than women followed by financial and insurance services (29.5 percent) and professional, scientific and technical services industries (24.7 percent). (1 Australian dollar equals 0.71 U.S. dollar)