Australian Women Effectively Work Free From 3:56pm Today

3D illustration of male and female symbols with 2 piles of coins a small one for women and a larger one for men.

Aware Super has described 3.56pm on International Women’s Day as ‘National Pay Gap O’Clock’, because this is the time that women effectively start working for free.

Australian women will be working for free on International Women’s Day, according to one of the country’s largest industry super funds.

Data released by the Workplace Gender Equality Agency has highlighted an average gender pay gap of 13.3 per cent in Australia. Applying this pay gap to a 9am – 5pm workday, Aware Super has calculated that Australian women are effectively working for free from 3:56pm each day.

Aware Super CEO Deanne Stewart said Pay Gap O’Clock symbolised the single greatest impediment to Australian women achieving their best financial position at retirement.

“Our own Commonwealth Government recently declared that Australian women will be underpaid $51.8 billion this year,” she said.

“Another way of saying that is, Australia’s female workforce will do $51.8 billion worth of work for free.

“It’s frankly not good enough and it’s not enough that we talk about this issue a few times throughout the year. That’s why we’ve designated 3:56pm as Pay Gap O’Clock – to put a daily reminder in the diaries of Australian workplaces that as of this time, your female workforce is essentially there for free.”

Using WGEA’s gender pay gap data across all Australian States and Territories, as well as 18 industry sectors, Aware Super has modelled the potential impact of the gender pay gap on the retirement balances of Australian women.

Ms Stewart said for most Australians, compulsory super contributions (currently 10.5 per cent of wages) was the largest portion of a superannuation balance at retirement.

“A gender pay gap affects more than your take-home pay,” she said.

”It directly reduces your super contributions, which in turn directly reduces your potential balance at retirement. What makes that eventual gap at retirement even worse is the lost opportunity for compounding returns over time – which can see a dollar invested in super at the start of your working life, worth four dollars by the time you retire.

“Women working in professional, scientific and technical services will experience the greatest impact on their retirement balance from the gender pay gap, with a current industry gap of 21.2 per cent. That translates into women retiring from jobs in this sector with around $149,000 less than their male counterparts.

“Our healthcare sector is just as concerning – a gender pay gap of 21.1 per cent in this sector leads to $131,000 less in retirement for Australia’s healthcare professionals.

“As the fund with more teachers than any other in Australia, we’re also deeply concerned to see the gender pay gap for the Education and Training sector sitting at 10.1 per cent, meaning a $61,000 deficit to women when they retire from this essential role in our communities.”

To demonstrate the impact of WGEA’s gender pay gap data on Pay Gap O’Clock around the country, Aware Super has published the full list of Pay Gap O’Clock times by both Australian State/Territory and Industry Sector.

Visitors to the site can also download a pay gap data table so they can see the potential impact of their State or Sector gender pay gap on their own retirement savings

*Based on WGEA and ABS data, 2022

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