Women short-changed on pay

It seems hard to believe but data doesn’t lie – female executives are still earning substantially less than their male counterparts, in some cases as little as 55c for every dollar.

New data from the Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA) survey of 11,000 employers showed that as women moved up the ranks to become senior managers and key management personnel, the pay gap actually increased –from 24.6 per cent to 28.9 per cent.

Overall, the data confirmed that women get paid less at every level of management, even when they report to the chief executive. But women executives in administrative and support services were the worst off, earning 55c for every dollar earned by their male counterparts.

Women in senior executives in financial and insurance services also fared poorly, earning 65c for every dollar earned by their male colleagues. In these industries, bonus payments often played a significant role in widening the gap.

Transfield Services chairman Diane Smith-Gander told the AFR said women were often pigeonholed into “handmaiden” roles rather than “cash register” roles, which contributed to the pay gap.

Organisations needed to provide more opportunities for women to access “cash register jobs” such as sales and product development, where there are more opportunities to increase remuneration rather than administration duties.

WGEA director Helen Conway said female executives were often put in support roles rather than key roles. “The data clearly shows women in management aren’t accessing the same earning opportunities as men.

This is partly due to the fact that women gravitate to roles the market typically assesses as being of lower value,” Ms Conway told the AFR. “For example, we know female KMPs [key management personnel] are more likely to be in support roles such as human resources than line roles such as heads of finance.”

Ms Smith-Gander said to get a pay increase, women should seek more information from their boss about remuneration. “The issue is one of transparency. It’s often harder for women to ask for a pay rise because if they do they are perceived as too aggressive,” Ms Smith-Gander said.

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