Employee Earnings and Hours Survey 

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Key points 

  • The latest available data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) Average Weekly Earnings Survey (the AWE Survey) point to a steady increase of the gender pay gap in Australia over the last four to five years. While the AWE Survey is the most frequent and commonly used source of data for measuring the gender pay gap in Australia, it provides only limited scope for exploring possible explanations for the widening of the gap.

  • The ABS Employee Earnings and Hours Survey (the EEH Survey) is an important alternative source of data for measuring and analysing trends in the gender pay gap in Australia. While only conducted once every two years, the EEH Survey provides more disaggregated and detailed data than those in the AWE Survey, allowing more scope for analyses of potential underlying trends.

  • Consistent with recent data from the AWE Survey, the analysis of the results from the latest two EEH surveys, conducted in May 2006 and August 2008, show that, overall, there has been a widening in the gender pay gap in Australia. The EEH Survey data show, in particular, that the gender pay gap, based on the average hourly ordinary time earnings of full-time non-managerial adults, increased from 10.0 per cent in May 2006 to 11.0 per cent in August 2008.

  • In terms of the more disaggregated data, a key aspect of the EEH Survey is the information it provides on the coverage and earnings of men and women under different wage-setting arrangements, including awards, collective agreements and individual arrangements, such as Australian Workplace Agreements (AWAs).

  • The data reveal key differences between men and women in the wage-setting arrangements that they are generally covered by. In August 2008, women were more likely to be covered by collective agreements (43.3 per cent) and awards (19.9 per cent), whereas men were more likely to covered by individual arrangements (43.2 per cent) and collective agreements (36.5 per cent), with a relatively small proportion on awards (13.3 per cent).

  • The data similarly show disparities in the earnings of men and women under the various wage-setting arrangements with distinct differences in the gender pay gap across the pay-setting methods. Specifically they show that in August 2008, the gender pay gap, based on the average hourly total earnings of all non-managerial employees, was wider under AWAs (14.0 per cent) than under registered collective agreements (11.3 per cent) and awards (-6.6 per cent).

  • While the negative pay gap for awards indicates that this is the only wage-setting arrangement under which women had higher hourly total earnings on average than men, their earnings under this wage-setting arrangement in August 2008 were 25 per cent less on average than those of women under all wage-setting arrangements ($19.40 per hour compared with $26.20 per hour).

  • Further analysis of the data shows clear differences in the gender pay gap by private and public sector, industry, occupation and state and territory, highlighting the importance of going beyond headline, overall measures of the gap and examining differences based on the characteristics of employees.

  • The analysis also shows that between May 2006 and August 2008 there were quite disproportionate increases in the gender pay gap for a number of categories.

  • More detailed analysis and research of unpublished data from the EEH Survey may help to determine the nature and extent to which various underlying factors, including differences between men and women in the coverage of various wage-setting arrangements, may be a potential driver of these increases.


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