'Room for improvement': how gender equal the public service is on pay, promotions and parental leave

The 2022 Commonwealth Public Sector Gender Equality Snapshot, released on Monday by the Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA), also found women are far more likely than men to be in the lowest-earning pay bracket, six out of 10 workplaces have a pay gap in favour of men, women make up 57 per cent of the workforce but only 48 per cent of leadership positions and poor rates of men (13.5 per cent) taking up parental leave.

It is a voluntary sample of 52 Commonwealth employers out of a total of 112, just ahead of a move towards the compulsory reporting of gender equality data for all public sector employers with 100 or more employees.

"There's still plenty of room for improvement. The momentum is in the right way. The promotions are happening ... that helps address some of these gaps," WGEA CEO Mary Wooldridge told The Canberra Times.

"When we look at the breakdown within the quartile, it's actually 44 per cent women and 56 per cent men are in that top [earning] quartile.

"So there's two things that are happening ... there's more men and women in that top quartile. But as a proportion of women and men, proportionately given that women are 50 per cent of the public sector overall, women are proportionally much less likely to be highly paid as well because so many are sitting in those lower bands."

Based on the voluntary reporting, the snapshot has found the public sector has a total remuneration gender pay gap of 11.6 per cent.

That's down from Australia's gender pay gap, on base salary, of 13.3 per cent that has women making 87 cents for every $1 men make.

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For Ms Wooldridge, a former Liberal minister in Victoria, the public service might be better but it can still do more.

"It needs to continue to strive to take initiatives that bring that down," she said.

"A lot of that gender pay gap is driven by compositional issues. The fact that there are more women in the federal public sector, but they're over-represented at the lower levels of pay and the lower paid roles and trying to get some more balance in that context, as well as how we increase their appointments and performing those most senior roles."

Almost one in three men (32.7 per cent) are in the top earnings quartile in the private sector, earning above $141,000, compared to almost one in five women (19.4 per cent).

It is all turned around in the lowest earning quartile where there are far more women, with nearly one in three (28.7 per cent) women earning below $94,000, compared to almost one in five (19.8 per cent) men.

Addressing pay fragmentation in the public service, or levelling out pay disparities between agencies is part of APS-wide pay and conditions talks under way between the Australian Public Service Commission, unions and agencies.

A study discussed in Senate estimates in February of the drivers of the gender pay gap within the Australian public service suggested more women need to be promoted, and at the same time, men and women need to be balanced out in lower classifications.

The Public Service Commission found if the lowest classification was balanced out with men, the gender pay gap would reduce from 6 per cent to 0.4 per cent. It found the gender pay gap would actually increase if there was a reliance on female promotions.

The snapshot shows women have slightly more appointments (61.5 per cent), promotions (60 per cent) and resignations (61.8 per dent) than their representation in the public sector workforce (57.2 percent).

The CEO said work is needed not just on improving the situation for women, but for all people.

"For example, target setting and initiatives that focus on equality for men in terms of things like uptake of flexible work, access and utilisation of parental leave and increasing men's employment in highly feminised occupations in areas of the public sector workforce is a very strong theme," Ms Wooldridge said.

More than 55 per cent of employers have conducted pay gap audits, but two thirds (68 per cent) of employers that did it took action afterwards.

The snapshot shows targets in the public service are rarely (4 per cent) set to increase men in female-dominated roles, while 40 per cent of employers set targets to increase the number of women in leadership positions.

And men's uptake of paid parental leave in the public sector is low, despite generous policies.

Only 13.5 per cent of paid parental leave is taken by men.

96 per cent of public sector employers had breastfeeding facilities, but only 19 percent had on-site childcare - a similar result to the private sector.

The snapshot, the realisation of recommendation 43 from the landmark Respect at Work report, looks at the public sector through the lens of equality indicators and it represents 132,551 employees from the APS and Corporate Commonwealth Entities and Businesses. Participating employers included 40 agencies who employ staff under the Public Service Act (APS agencies) and 12 non-APS agencies.

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The statistics may be voluntary at the moment, but it is a start and there are clear opportunities for further action.

"I think we can definitely take the results seriously and we can learn but they are an indicator and may not exactly replicate for next year's results when we have the full census," Ms Wooldridge said. "So this starts the momentum and the full mandatory reporting will help to accelerate that."

The compulsory public service gender pay data will be collected from September and the next full report is expected mid-2024.

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