Millennial Women Are Earning Up To $28,000 Less Than Men Each Year
Less than half of women are working full time, and still aren't being promoted into managerial positions at the same rate as their male colleagues, regardless of age.
New research has found that millennial women are earning up to $28,000 less than men every year, contributing to Australia’s ongoing gender pay gap.
The ‘Wages and Ages: Mapping the Gender Pay Gap by Age‘ report by the Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA) revealed on Monday that men out-earn women across every working generation.
Using data from 2021, the report shared that women aged 25 to 34 were earning 12.5 percent — or more than $11,500 — less than their male counterparts on average, while women aged 35 to 44 were copping 22.5 percent less, felt in a $27,832 hole in their pockets.
If the trends continue at the current rate, millennial women are en route to earning only 70 percent of men’s earnings by the time they reach 45 — in part due to maternity leave and child-rearing considerations.
The research also found that less than half of women are working full-time regardless of age, and still aren’t being promoted into managerial positions at the same rate as their male colleagues across the board.
The solution, according to WGEA, lies in gender-neutral parental leave, childcare subsidies and support, and flexible work policies that enable mothers to stay in the workforce and access equal career prospect trajectories after giving birth.
“Millennial women in the workforce 35 and under are currently reaching management at equal rates as men,” says WGEA Director, Mary Wooldridge. “We have a generation of Australian women who are highly educated, and over the last decade, have been outnumbering men in higher education enrolments and completion.”
“If organisations want to unlock the potential that these women can provide after the age of 35, there needs to be a shift in workplace structures surrounding them,” she said. “Creative workplaces will reap the talent rewards today and in the future.”
At the beginning of June, the Albanese Government committed to raising the minimum wage as part of an annual review, noting that women formed the majority of workers in low-paid industries, according to the Sydney Morning Herald.
“One of my top priorities in this role will be to help close the gender pay gap. Women should not be paid less than men — it’s that simple,” said Workplace Relations Minister Tony Burke.
Photo Credit: Jason Goodman/Unsplash