Gender pay gap narrows, but the highest earners still tend to be men

Sydney Morning Herald

by Millie Muroi

March 2, 2026

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Gender pay gap narrows, but the highest earners still tend to be men

The gender pay gap in Australia has narrowed slightly, with more employers now achieving a difference of 5% or less between male and female workers. According to the Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA), 22.5% of employers met this target in 2024-25, up from 21.4% the previous year. However, significant disparities remain, particularly among high earners. Men are nearly twice as likely as women to hold top-paying roles, and industries with the highest average remuneration often exhibit the largest pay gaps due to uneven gender distribution across income quartiles. The report highlights that while lower-paid workers, who are disproportionately female, saw stronger wage growth (4.3-4.5% for the lowest and lower-middle quartiles), this contributed to a reduction in the overall gender pay gap. For example, in construction, women make up only 10% of the highest-paid quartile ($270,433 on average) but nearly 40% of the lowest-paid quartile ($80,614). Similar patterns emerge in financial and insurance services, where the top 25% earners (just over a third women) earn $323,593, while the bottom 25% (two-thirds women) earn $79,3

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Originally published on Sydney Morning Herald on 3/2/2026