Men working in Australian universities earn 10 per cent more on average than their female colleagues, even though gender pay disparities have contracted.

Male higher education staff are also about 45 per cent more likely than women, on a per capita basis, to be in the top pay quartile.

by the Workplace Gender Equity Agency (WGEA) has found that progress in combating pay inequities in higher education – alongside many other industries – has been patchy.

Pay gaps at 41 universities ranged from about 5 per cent to 18 per cent last financial year. Across the sector, men earned 9.9 per cent more than women – a marginal decrease from the 10.1 per cent difference recorded in 2023-24.

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The gap narrowed last year at about two-thirds of universities but widened at a dozen others. No university managed to place itself within the WGEA’s “target range” of less than 5 per cent pay disparity.

The figures come from the WGEA’s analysis of pay data from approximately 5.9 million people at 10,500 medium and large employers. The study uncovered an overall pay gap of 21.1 per cent, suggesting that for every A$1 earned by a typical man, the average women received just under 79 cents – a disparity amounting to A$28,356 (£15,040) over the course of a year.

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WGEA chief executive Mary Wooldridge said differences in “discretionary” payments such as overtime and bonuses accounted for a large proportion of the gap. “Men are nearly twice as likely as women to be in the highest-paid roles and…women still dominate the lowest-paid roles,” Wooldridge said.

“[That] should offer a reality check for anyone who thinks Australia has achieved equality in the workplace.”

Universities’ pay gaps were well below the workforce average but tended to be larger than in other educational sectors, including schooling, early education and technical training. Universities also registered larger gaps, on average, than private higher education colleges with fewer than 500 staff.

Angel Calderon, director of strategic insights at RMIT University, said pay gaps in higher education were exacerbated by a dearth of women in senior academic roles.

Calderon’s analysis of the latest available Department of Education data found that women made up almost 60 per cent of the university workforce in 2024 and occupied nearly 55 per cent of professional leadership positions, up from about 37 per cent in 2001. But they constituted just 45 per cent of associate professors and 36 per cent of full professors.

This reflected “fierce” competition – with universities around the world “keen to have more women on board” – but also a lack of “robust systems” to help women climb the ladder, particularly at senior lecturer level.

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“There’s more work to be done,” Calderon said. “If we’re able to foster and encourage more women and prepare them to basically have the confidence in applying for promotion to become associate professors…that would be extremely helpful.”

Torrens and Edith Cowan universities achieved the sector’s smallest pay gaps of 5.4 per cent, according to the WGEA data. RMIT and Queensland University of Technology were close behind at 6.1 per cent.

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Bond University had the sector’s biggest pay gap of 18 per cent, followed by the now merged University of Adelaide on 17 per cent and Federation University on 13.8 per cent.

Bond’s pay gap, measured as a median rather than an average, was fairly typical of the sector at 9.1 per cent. “Pure averages…distort the overall picture because of the distributional properties of small sample sizes,” a spokesman said.

“Small movements can influence relatively large swings. Over the past 12 months, Bond’s figures have been influenced by departures…of a few senior female staff who have not yet been replaced.”

Provost Keitha Dunstan said Bond had strategies to recruit more senior women and help women secure promotion. “We still have a way to go but we remain committed to closing this gap.”

Federation said its “strong, sustained action” to address the gender pay gap had included “reinvigorating” its academic women’s mentoring programme. The number of women applying for academic promotion had more than doubled last year, it said.

“The gender pay gap remains a sustained and unacceptable issue at universities and beyond,” a spokeswoman said. “We remain committed to advancing gender equity through ongoing, practical action.”

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john.ross@timeshighereducation.com