Closer scrutiny on gender pay gap as companies step up

But the analysis also shows 56 per cent of employers improved their gender pay gap in the last year.

This year the agency published data collected from 7800 individual employers and 1700 corporate groups.

That means Australians working for a company that is part of a bigger corporate group can access both the group and individual employer's gender pay gap data for the first time.

In the 2023/24 results, nearly three in four (72 per cent) of all employers paid men more than women on average.

High-paying employers were the most likely to have a gender pay gap in favour of men as well as having a larger pay gap.

More than 1100 employers were in the target range for both measures, which WGEA chief executive Mary Wooldridge described as an encouraging result.

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

"Where an employer's gender pay gap is beyond the target range it indicates one gender is more likely to be over-represented in higher paying roles compared to the other. "

Ms Wooldridge said there had been a "big jump" in the number of employers doing a gender pay gap analysis.

"While there are things that are systemic to industries, there's also employers within those industries taking initiative to drive change at an employer level as well as perhaps working more collectively at an industry level," she said.

For employers that hadn't made progress in the past year, Ms Wooldridge said it was 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," she said.

Qantas Airways recorded a 39.2 per cent average total remuneration gender pay gap while Virgin Australia recorded a 41.7 per cent gap.

Meanwhile, Australia's largest independent real estate agency recorded a negative gender pay gap.

Little Real Estate has recorded a median remuneration gap of -2 per cent compared to the industry average of 6.3 per cent.

A negative percentage indicates that women are paid more on average than men within an organisation.

The agency had made it a priority to promote women into leadership roles, chief operating officer Rebecca Kerr said.

"We have a strong focus on flexibility in the workplace because the best work isn't always able to be done between the hours of nine to five," she said.

"If we want to encourage and support women in the workplace we need to be realistic about their workload and give them the trust and autonomy to get the job done on their own terms."

For many employers, the publication of gender pay gaps in the past two years had been a catalyst to assess gender-based differences in all areas of their workplace, Ms Wooldridge said.

"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.

"What is common to each is purposeful action that breaks down traditional notions of what it means to be a worker and carer in the contemporary workplace."