Australia’s national gender pay gap has widened, seeing women working full-time taking home $265.50 a week less than their male counterparts.
The figure was released Thursday afternoon by the Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA), revealing the change that has occurred over the past six months on comparing men and women working full-time.
They also announced that ‘Equal Pay Day 2021’ will fall on August 31 this year, marking the 61 extra days women have to work from the end of the financial year to achieve the same annual pay as men.
The difference was driven by a rise in men’s full-time wages that far outpaced a rise in women’s wages, 1.8% compared with 0.9%, with the ABS particularly highlighting earnings growth in construction — an industry that received considerable pandemic stimulus from the Federal Government — as largely supporting this growth.
Source: Australia’s gender pay gap has widened to 14.2 percent