The analysis of the data explores gender pay gaps across over 12,000 organisations that capture more than four million Australian employees.
Gender pay gap in real estate
The report looked at the full-time gender pay gap in the rental, hiring and real estate industries. Based on the total remuneration of employees in 2015/16, the average base salary for females was $92,735 compared to $131,220 for males, a 29.3% gap.
This was the second highest gender pay gap in the report, behind the financial and insurance services industry which had a 33.2% gap. It also showed that the number of male senior executives in the rental, hiring and real estate industries in 2015/16 was 50, compared to 11 females.
The number of male key management personnel was 31, compared to eight females.
Further key findings
The report said that gender pay gaps for organisations with a balanced representation of women in senior leadership roles are half of those with the least representation of women in leadership.
For part-time employees, non-managerial women out-earn men on average by 7.8%, or around $4,000 a year. This pattern reverses at senior levels where part-time female managers earn on average 27.1% less than their male peers.
The gender pay gap grows with seniority, climbing to 26.5% for top-tier managers, an annual difference of more than $93,000 in total remuneration.
Report author and BCEC Principal Research Fellow Associate Professor Rebecca Cassells said: “Not only do female-dominated organisations tend to be lower paid, but this analysis shows that in workplaces with heavily female-dominated management teams there are large gender pay gaps in favour of men.
“It seems that where the men are few, they are more highly valued.”
WGEA Director Libby Lyons said it was time to challenge the way we think about work.
She added: “This report shows that regardless of the industry they choose to work in, women are worse off than men when working full-time.
“The analysis is clear, gender-balanced workplaces and gender balanced leadership teams lower the gender pay gap.
“We must address the stereotypes dictating the work women and men ‘should’ do, if Australia is to meet the social and economic challenges in the decades ahead.”