What our data shows

The overall mean base salary(opens in a new window) and total remuneration(opens in a new window) gender pay gaps across the public sector did not change between 2021 and 2023.

Table 1: Overall mean base salary and total remuneration pay gaps in 2021 and 2023

Source: Workplace gender audit workforce data, 2021 and 2023

Table 1 shows that the overall public sector pay gaps between women and men stayed about the same from 2021, remaining around 14% for base salary and 15% for total remuneration. In 2023, this equals an average difference of $15,746 in base salary and $20,375 in total remuneration per year, with men earning more in both cases. However, the median(opens in a new window) total remuneration pay gap dropped by 1% to 9% in 2023.

Every industry continued to have a pay gap in favour of men.

Table 2: Mean total remuneration pay gaps by industry

Source: Workplace gender audit workforce data, 2021 and 2023

In 2023, all 11 industries had pay gaps favouring men. Public health care had the largest gap at around 32% (or an average of $56,985), which decreased by 2% from 2021. This was much higher than the second-largest gap of 17% for finance and insurance (up nearly 1.5% from 2021). Local government (3.5%), and sport and recreation (4.1%) had the lowest gaps.

Public health care had the largest pay gaps favouring men in both 2021 and 2023. The public health care industry in Victoria was 77% women in 2023, and health care has traditionally been a majority-women industry. The continuing pay gap in health care supports existing evidence that feminised industries are not safe from pay inequity (Cortis et al. 2023).

Police and emergency services made the most progress, with the pay gap dropping by almost 8 % to 10.5% (or $13,938 on average) in 2023.

Men continued to earn more than women across every public sector occupation group.

Table 3: Mean total remuneration pay gaps by occupation group

Source: Workplace gender audit workforce data, 2021 and 2023

Table 3 shows that men were paid more than women in every occupation group in 2023. Mean total remuneration pay gaps ranged from just over 7% to around 22%, which translates to an average of $8,138 to $24,022 per year respectively. Traditionally majority-women occupations had some of the largest pay gaps, including community and personal service workers. As with the public health care industry, this supports existing evidence that jobs and industries with more women are not safe from pay inequity (Cortis et al. 2023).

Four occupational groups made progress towards closing the gender pay gap. Labourers showed the biggest drop since 2021, down by 8% to 11% (or an average of $8,830). However, mean total remuneration pay gaps increased for more than half the occupation groups in the public sector, with the gap widening most for professionals (up 5%).

All industries except water and land management had pay gaps in favour of men at the senior leadership level.

Table 4: Mean total remuneration senior leader³ pay gaps by industry (including CEOs)

Source: Workplace gender audit workforce data, 2021 and 2023

In 2023, all industries except water and land management had pay gaps that favoured men in leadership roles. Public health care had the largest gap at over 20% ($61,284). Universities also had a significant 14% pay gap favouring men in leadership roles, up more than 3% from 2021. This means men who were senior leaders in universities earned on average $84,583 more than women in similar roles in 2023.

The police and emergency services industry narrowed its senior leader pay gap by almost 16%. But this means men who were senior leaders in this industry still earned on average $45,969 more than women in similar roles in 2023. There was also a significant change in the water and land management industry, where the pay gap shifted from favouring men in 2021 to favouring women in 2023.

Gender pay gaps in all sectors, industries and occupations in Australia overwhelmingly favour men because of the combined gendered drivers outlined above. However, any significant pay gap favouring a particular gender can indicate inequality. Therefore, a large gender pay gap favouring women should not be seen as positive. Rather, organisations should aim to achieve a pay gap that is as close to zero as possible (noting that fluctuations in smaller organisations can be expected). Organisations should maintain mean and median total remuneration gender pay gaps well within a target range of under 5% and over −5% (WGEA 2025).

Drivers of gender pay gaps

As discussed above, many complex and interconnected systemic issues influence the gender pay gap. Many of these issues are captured using the workplace gender equality indicators(opens in a new window) (WGEI) in the Act.

The above section focuses on data related to Indicator 3 (equal remuneration for work of equal or comparable value across all levels of the workforce, irrespective of gender). This section here identifies selected data from other indicators that can help us understand the pay gap in the Victorian public sector.

WGEI 1: Gender composition of the workforce

Men continued to hold a disproportionate share of leadership positions.

Table 5: Proportion of the workforce and senior leaders who were women

Source: Workplace gender audit workforce data, 2021 and 2023

While there were small gains in women’s representation in leadership roles in 2023, men still held most of these positions. Although around 66% of Victorian public sector employees were women, only 48% of senior leaders and 43% of CEO positions were held by women.

Pay gaps at the organisation, industry and sector level are partly driven by the fact that women tend to be overrepresented in lower-paid junior roles and men tend to be overrepresented in highly paid senior roles. Several factors cause this. Women are far more likely to experience career interruptions and barriers to participation due to caring responsibilities. Gendered assumptions about who can lead and what a leader looks like also lead to reduced representation of women at senior levels.

WGEI 2: Gender composition of governing bodies

Governing bodies remained relatively gender balanced.

In 2023, the average public sector board was just over 52% women. This remained relatively steady since 2021. The proportion of governing body chairs who were women increased slightly to 51.2% (up 2%).

The Victorian government has worked since 2015 to increase the diversity of public sector boards. This initiative included a target for 50% of new board appointments to be women (see ‘Why board diversity matters’(opens in a new window) for more information). Consistent gender balance of governing bodies in Victoria in recent years shows that this policy is working.

WGEI 5: Recruitment and promotion practices

Recruitments and exits closely matched the gender balance of the workforce.

Table 6: Proportion of recruitments, exits and all employees by gender

Source: Workplace gender audit workforce data, 2021 and 2023

The overall gender composition of the Victorian public sector remained steady at around 66% women in 2023. However, the proportion of employees disclosing their self-described gender increased 7-fold to 0.5% of all employees.

Recruitments and exits closely mirrored the gender composition of the workforce.

The largest change in recruitment was in the police and emergency services industry. The proportion of new recruits who were women rose 7% in 2023 to 55%. This may be promising, given this industry is one of the most men-concentrated in the Victorian public sector. However, there was also a sharp and concerning rise in women exiting this industry, up almost 6% to nearly 48%.

In 2023, men continued to receive a disproportionate share of career development training opportunities, secondments, higher duties and promotions.

Table 7: Proportion of career advancement opportunities accessed by each gender

Source: Workplace gender audit workforce data, 2021 and 2023

In 2023, men continued to receive a disproportionate share of career development training opportunities, secondments, higher duties and promotions. In particular, men received almost 46% of higher duties opportunities and almost 41% of promotions and secondments, despite being only 34% of the workforce.

In the People matter survey in 2023, women were slightly more likely to report barriers to success at work compared to men. 27% of women respondents reported barriers compared to 24% of men (down 0.4 and 4.2% since 2021 respectively). People of self-described gender reported barriers at much higher rates, up 1% since 2021 to 53%.

Ensuring women have equal access to career advancement opportunities is important for addressing pay gaps. More senior or technical roles and more well-trained and experienced candidates are likely to be paid more. Inequality in access to training, experience in other roles, and ultimately receiving promotion contributes to gendered differences in remuneration.

WGEI 6: Leave and flexible working arrangements

In most industries, the proportion of parental leave takers who were men grew.

Table 8: Proportion of parental leave takers who were men and number of weeks leave taken in 2023

Source: Workplace gender audit workforce data, 2021 and 2023

Between 2021 and 2023, 9 out of 10 industries with sufficient data saw an increase in the proportion of parental leave takers who were men. The largest jump was in the finance and insurance industry, where men were 32.2% of employees accessing parental leave in 2023, up nearly 12%. The largest drops were in the police and emergency services and sport and recreation industries.

In most industries, there were only small changes in the average number of weeks’ leave men took. The largest changes were in finance and insurance, and police and emergency services, where the average number of weeks went up by 5.6 and 4 respectively.

Across all industries, the proportion of parental leave takers who were men jumped over 5% to nearly 26%. Men across the sector also took an extra 2.2 weeks’ leave on average in 2023.

Breaking down the gender imbalance in parental leave is central to gender equality at work and in the home. Gendered divisions of labour, especially in heterosexual relationships, disadvantage women at work and men in the home (Dangar 2023; Sojo et al. 2022).

Normalising parental leave, regardless of gender, ensures men can spend time with their children and share the domestic load. It also contributes to changing how organisations view parental leave. Instead of viewing it as a choice women make to opt out of the workforce, de-gendering parental leave helps reframe it as an important contribution made by people of all genders that should not set them back at work. If people of all genders take up parental leave at similar rates and there is no career disadvantage for taking parental leave, the financial penalty women currently experience will reduce (WGEA 2024:78).

Fewer women and slightly more men had a flexible work arrangement in 2023.

Table 9: Prevalence of formal flexible work arrangements, by gender

Source: Workplace gender audit workforce data, 2021 and 2023

Flexible work arrangements continued to be more commonly used by women. However, the gap between men and women closed.

Women are more likely to be responsible for care work and household duties (Dangar et al. 2023). Evidence shows that options like flexible and part-time work or carer's leave support women to manage competing priorities of career and care (Dangar et al. 2023). However, taking up these options can also mean women are overlooked for career advancement (Dangar et al. 2023). Similarly, men may find it hard to ask for, or be granted, flexible work (Sojo et al. 2022). Closing the flexible work gap between men and women helps normalise flexible work, helps women advance in their careers, and helps men participate at home.

WGEI 7: Gendered segregation in the workforce

Industrial and occupational gendered segregation continued to be an issue.

Women make up 48% of the Australian workforce (AIFS 2023). By contrast, the Victorian public sector was 66% women in 2023 (up 1% from 2021).

Women made up the largest proportion of workers in the public health care industry, at around 77%. By contrast, transport had the lowest concentration of women, with 27% of all employees being women.

Table 10: Proportion of employees who were women, by occupation

Source: Workplace gender audit workforce data, 2021 and 2023

Occupational segregation continues in the Victorian public sector. In 2023, men made up 88% of machine operators and drivers, while women were 73% of clerical and administrative workers.

Occupational segregation is a significant driver of the pay gap. Technical occupations that men more often hold tend to be higher paid. Roles that women traditionally hold, such as administration or caring jobs, are often lower paid and often do not have opportunities for additional remuneration, such as shift work and overtime.

Occupational segregation is also difficult to change. Gender stereotypes about what roles are appropriate for what gender start very young (Canessa-Pollard 2022). For this reason, little change since 2021 is unsurprising. This demonstrates a need to continue focusing on reducing gender segregation in the public sector.

Intersectionality

Intersectional forms of inequality compound disadvantage.

Where gender inequality intersects with another form of discrimination, pay gaps are likely to be larger. This is explored in detail in the Commission’s 2023 report Intersectionality at work(opens in a new window).¹

For this report, estimated mean salary gaps were calculated between groups who experience one or more forms of discrimination. This analysis found that:

• the largest pay gap was always between women who belong to a disadvantaged group (for example, women with disability) and men who don’t belong to that group (for example, men without disability)
• the second (or equal second) largest pay gap was always between women who don’t belong to a disadvantaged group (for example, women without disability) and men who also don’t belong to that group (for example, men without disability)
• the smallest (or equal smallest) pay gap was always between women who belong to a disadvantaged group (for example, women with disability) and women who don’t belong to that group (for example, women without disability).

This demonstrates that while intersecting forms of inequality can lead to significantly larger pay gaps, gender is still the primary contributor.

Table 11 shows the pay gaps for the comparator groups with the largest gaps in 2021. These pay gaps are estimates and use self-reported survey data. For further information on how these were calculated, see the ‘Estimated pay gap calculation’ section of the methodology(opens in a new window) of Intersectionality at work.²

Table 11: Estimated mean salary gaps by comparator groups

Source: People matter survey data, 2021 and 2023

As in 2021, the largest estimated pay gap was between First Nations women and non-Indigenous men. This gap grew by 1% in 2023 to 27%. The largest jump was in the pay gap between trans, non-binary or gender diverse people and cisgender women, up 6% to 6%.

At the industry level, public health care consistently had the largest gaps between the above groups. These ranged from 33% (between trans, non-binary or gender diverse people and cisgender men, down 1%) to 45% (between First Nations women and non-Indigenous men, up 2%).

Footnotes:

1. The methodology used in this report is the same as in Intersectionality at work, except that the mean reported salary is used instead of the median.
2. CARM is an acronym for culturally and racially marginalised. See Intersectionality at work for further discussion around language used to describe groups that experience discrimination.