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

I thank Senator Walsh for the question and also acknowledge how great it is to work with everyone on this side of the chamber who is so focused on closing the gender pay gap and really sees it as a core priority for the Albanese government. And I also acknowledge Senator Walsh's long career in advocating for pay equality and improvements for pay and working conditions for women.

Equal Pay Day is a practical way to show what the pay gap means for women—50 days since 30 June to catch up with what men earned in the last financial year. So, in a 48-week working year, this is more than one day per week. The good news is that the gender pay gap is reducing and is now at a record low of 11½ per cent, down from 12 per cent in November last year and down from 14.1 per cent in 22 May when we came to government.

Since that time, women's average weekly wages have increased by $173.80. That's a 10.8 per cent increase in average weekly wages. We've also hit a record high in women's workforce participation, at 63.2 per cent. And, because we have had women's economic equality front and centre of this government's agenda, we're doing the hard work, with a 15 per cent pay increase for early childhood educators and a 15 per cent pay rise for many aged-care workers. Both of those are, of course, highly feminised industries. We've secured record pay rises for hundreds and thousands of women who work on award wages. We've fixed the bargaining system to get wages moving and encourage more enterprise agreements. We banned pay secrecy, a big way that was being used to keep women's wages down. We've put gender equality at the heart of the Fair Work Commission's decision-making. And we've got increased transparency in reporting gender pay gap, taking away the secrecy that exists in industries specific to see what women get paid.