Two of Canberra's key business leaders have attributed a mix of circumstance and active awareness for the ACT's relatively limited gender pay gap.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
As the ACT's successful candidate for Australian of the Year promised to target gender equality, Robyn Hendry and Kate Carnell said the national capital was a leader on the issue, even though South Australia was now closest to pay parity.
"There is a greater awareness in our labor force which would be because we're a highly educated workforce with a very high participation rate – dual-income families – and with that equality of the sexes we're a good eco-system for that issue," Ms Hendry said.
The latest Australian Bureau of Statistics figures showed full-time average earnings for ACT men were 11.7 per cent greater than those of full-time working women as of May, with the gap growing by 1.6 percentage points in a year.
South Australia was the only jurisdiction with a smaller gap, thanks to an impressive 5.3 percentage point fall in the year, to 10.8 per cent. The national average fell to 17.9 per cent, down 0.4 points.
Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry chief executive Kate Carnell said the public service influence was important, with strong role models as heads of public departments and in politics, and the industries-mix also aided Canberra's lower gap.
"We're lucky, but we also have been focused on gender equality for a long time, and have very well qualified women in areas where there isn't the same wage disparity as some others," she said.
"We also don't have some of the jobs in the "big end" of town – the multinational senior executive types, where unfortunately there is still a predominance of men in those roles."
Both women welcomed the announcement of David Morrison as Australian of the Year, saying the former army chief would be able to continue his actions to make gender inequality unacceptable.
"He can be sending a message to more male-dominated parts of our society about the importance of changing those areas," Ms Carnell said.
The ACT public service revealed a gender pay gap of two per cent in its last State of the Service Report, while women take up 47 per cent of seats on ACT government boards, the equal highest rate with South Australia.
Ms Hendry, Canberra Business Chamber chief executive, said providing women with greater access to senior positions was one way to improve the pay divide, and making it attractive for women to return to work after maternity leave through greater flexibility was an important start.
There was a 24 per cent total remuneration difference nationally once bonuses were included, based on data from private sector firms who employed more than 100 people reported to the Workplace Gender Equality Agency last year.
The percentage of women on ASX200 boards rose by 2.4 points to 21.7 per cent last year, with women making up 34 per cent of the year's new appointments.