Superannuation, overtime, allowances and bonuses widen gender pay gap

Australia's Workplace Gender Equality Agency annual data found that 56 per cent of employers improved their gender pay gap in the past 12 months.

But a sizeable gap remains. Earning just 78 cents on the dollar adds up to a $28,425 annual difference.

More than a third of that difference, $11,204, is from payments beyond base salary such as superannuation, overtime, allowances and performance bonuses, WGEA said.

WGEA CEO Mary Wooldridge said, "Each employer has a unique set of circumstances that impacts the size of their gender pay gap".

"Over the past year, employers have told us that publication of employer gender pay gaps is a catalyst to assess gender-based differences in all areas of their workplace," she said.

"For employers that haven't made progress, it's time to ask why - dig into the data to find out what's causing any gender differences and use evidence-based solutions to address them."

The majority of employers, 72.2 per cent, have pay gaps that favour men while just 6.5 per cent of employers have an average pay gap that favours women. A neutral pay gap was found for 21.3 per cent of employers.

Women were 1.5 times more likely to be employed in the lowest-paid quartile and men were 1.9 times more likely to be in the highest-paid quartile when looking at national data.

The average total remuneration in the highest quartile is more than 3.7 times higher than the lowest quartile, WGEA said.

New pathways for career progression could be created for diverse employees by broadening the pipeline of talent across occupations and job roles, the WGEA CEO said.

Ms Wooldridge said that purposeful action from employers "breaks down traditional notions of what it means to be a worker and carer in the contemporary workplace".

"For men, a more equal experience could mean their employer is providing access to paid parental leave, paying superannuation on that leave and actively supporting a flexible return to work from parental leave," she said.

"For women, it could mean their employer is redesigning manager roles that will enable those roles to be undertaken on a part-time basis or as a job share.

"It's promising to see the big increase in the number of employers working to understand what is driving their gender pay gap, beyond unequal pay," Ms Wooldridge said.