Katy Gallagher (ACT, Australian Labor Party, Minister for the Public Service) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Ghosh for that question and for focusing on the narrowing gender pay gap. It is a really important report today. Australia's gender equality scorecard reports that the latest gender pay gap data shows that the gender pay gap in total remuneration has narrowed to 21.1 per cent, down from 21.7 per cent. The report from WGEA itself says:

The main driver of the decrease in the gender pay gap in 2023-24 was the increase of wages for lower paid workers; in particular, Aged Care Residential Services, where women make up—

the vast majority of employees. Isn't that amazing? Where you have large groups of working women in low-paid industries, if you try to address their pay levels and raise them to appropriate standards, you see a closing of the gender pay gap—amazing! It never happened under those opposite, who never prioritised women's wages and never prioritised feminised industries. (Time expired)