Executive Director of Women on Boards Claire Braund asks, given the Commonwealth public sector's gender pay gap is  narrower than private sector, is a government job still a ‘good option for women’?

Government employment has often been touted as a 'good option for women', providing the best and most secure employment conditions and reducing the likelihood of gender discrimination. This long held belief is being tested by the recent release of scorecard data from the Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA) which shows the Commonwealth Public Sector has a gender pay gap of 13.5% and in only 64% of employers undertook a gender pay gap analysis. This means women earn 86 cents for every dollar earned by men and this adds up to women earning $19,007 less than men per year. Of the employers who undertook a gender pay gap analysis, only 64% took action on the findings and just 9% of those created an Action Plan. 

The Commonwealth Public Sector Gender Scorecard for 2022 was released last week by the WGEA and features the results from WGEA’s employer Census of all public sector employers with 100 or more employees. Key statistics include:

• 339,951 employees were included in the census
• 43.5% are women and 56.3% are men. 
• men are 2.5 times likely to be in the highest earning quartile than women
• 50% of employer gender pay gaps are above 6.9%.
• 11% of universal parental leave is taken by men
• 55% of employers have a gender-balanced board