The reduction in pay gap by gender is slow but steady. The national average total remuneration gender pay gap dropped from 21.8% to 21.1%, continuing the downward trend. Every state and territory reduced the gender pay gap, nationally 54.8% of employers.

The Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA) released its Employer Gender Pay Gaps Report for 2024-25 in March 2026. This publication is in addition to the annual Gender Equality Scorecard released in November 2025, and provides further analysis on aggregated results for broader context and proposes commonalities that increase the likelihood of larger gender pay gaps both in favour of men and in favour of women.

This year marks the second year with remuneration of CEOs, Head of Business (HOB) and Causal Managers included in the gender pay gap (GPG) calculation.

Figure 1: Historical average total remuneration gender pay gap

WGEA states additional payments above base salary (inclusive of superannuation, bonuses and overtime, etc) is the most significant contributor to the gender pay gay for many employees. As these amounts are discretionary, it pushes the quantum over and beyond the normal expected salary range of the role. Research shows performance bonuses, allowances and access to overtime is rarely objective, widening the pay gap as women tend to earn significantly less on average compared to men. WGEA calculates that 50% of employers pay men more than 29.7% more than women in bonuses, overtime and additional payments.

The proportion of women in leadership roles has remained about the same as the prior year, with women representing 22% of CEO roles (no change) and 43% of overall manager roles (1pp increase). Female representation on boards and governing bodies remains largely unchanged at 33% (1pp increase). Still, one in 4 boards consist of no women, predominately in male-dominated industries such as mining, construction and manufacturing. In comparison, only 1% of boards do not have male representation (no change).

Promotions from non-manager to manager positions is about 50:50 between men and women. This is positive as the move from non-manager to manager, the “broken rung”, is a major hurdle for women’s career progression. However, women are resigning from both manager and non-manager roles at higher rates than men, highlighting underlying systemic issues.

Ninety one percent of employers have a policy or strategy to support gender equality in the workplace. Twenty percent of employees who took primary carer parental leave were men (3pp increase). Ninety nine percent of employers have a policy to prevent sexual harassment.

Progress in narrowing the gender pay gap has been supported by employer action, although further improvement will require more targeted and systematic approaches. Few employers undertake detailed analysis of gender gap sources, with only 24% conducting comprehensive reviews and 32% not analysing their gender pay gap at all.

WGEA identifies 3 key priority areas for employers to close their gender pay gaps:

1. More employers need to conduct a comprehensive analysis of pay and composition in their workplace
2. Workplace leaders should choose actions to improve fairness that are based on the analysis and supported by evidence
3. Set targets to improve accountability and measure progress.

See HERE for the full Employer Pay Gaps report and HERE for the full Gender Equality Scorecard.

You can benchmark your company’s report against the national standards HERE.

© Guerdon Associates 2026 Back to all articles