Women in the Australian Public Service (APS) have attained parity with men at every level up to and including Executive Level One, according to the Minister for Finance, Senator Simon Birmingham.
In Budget paper no. 4, Senator Birmingham said the overall proportion of women in the APS reached 59.9 per cent at December last year.
“In addition, the proportion of female SES employees has increased from 40 per cent in 2014 to 49 per cent in 2020, with women reaching parity (50.5 per cent) with men at the SES Band One classification for the first time in December 2020,” Senator Birmingham said.
“The representation of male and female employees at the highest APS classification levels is moving towards parity and this is reflected in a reduced gender pay gap across the APS,” he said.
“The gender pay gap has been reducing across the APS in recent years from 9.1 per cent in 2015 to 7.3 per cent in 2019.”
Senator Birmingham said mandatory reporting for the APS to the Workplace Gender Equality Agency would strengthen the trend and benchmark against the private sector on the gender pay gap.
He said the Australian Public Service Commission’s (APSC) Australian Public Service Workforce Strategy 2025, released in March, included supports to drive diversity within the APS.
“Indigenous Australians make up approximately 3.1 per cent of the Australian working age population and 3.4 per cent of the APS,” he said.
“The Strategy sets a number of targets to further increase Indigenous employment outcomes across the APS, including contributing to annual Closing the Gap reporting targets.”
Senator Birmingham said the APSC’s December 2020 Australian Public Service Disability Employment Strategy 2020–25 introduced a seven per cent employment target for people with disability in the APS by 2025.
“Further progress is needed, but in the year to 31 December 2020 there was an increase of 179 employees with disability to 5,929 employees in total,” he said.
“While there is still more work to do, these Strategies have helped increase the diversity of the APS workforce and will continue to shape the development of the APS,” the Minister said.
His 21-page Preface to Budget Paper No. 4 can be accessed on the Treasury website at this PS News link.
