The basics: The gender pay gap is the difference between women and men's average full-time weekly salaries, expressed as a percentage of men's salaries. The gender pay gap has remained relatively stable in Australia for close to two decades, with 2018 being the first year it dropped below 15 per cent. Crucially, the gender pay gap does not include non-salaried extras that employees might receive such as performance pay, superannuation and non-monetary incentives. If it did, the gap would be considerably larger. Loading The numbers: The current gender pay gap in Australia (as of August 2018) is 14.6 per cent, which equates to a women earning, on average, $244.80 less than men each week. The pay gap differs between industries and between locations. For example, the pay gap is lowest in Tasmania (9.7 per cent) and highest in Western Australia (22.4 per cent). The financial services industry has the highest industry pay gap (26.6 per cent) and public administration and safety has the lowest (5.8 per cent). The legalities: Australia passed the Equal Pay Act in 1969 which required employers to pay women and men the same salary for doing the same job. Before then it wasn't uncommon for jobs to be advertised with two separate wages for women and men. Today, the Fair Work Act prevents employers from paying women and men differently for work of equal value. Claims for equal remuneration can be made to the Fair Work Commission if this is not complied with. The top and the bottom: The most senior jobs in our economy – and the ones that attract the highest salaries – are still generally held by men. Of Australia's top 200 companies, there are more CEOs named Andrew than there are women CEOs. On the flip side, the lowest paid jobs in our economy, including unskilled and casual roles, remain dominated by women. When weekend penalty rates were cut last year, it disproportionately impacted women. Combine these top and bottom factors and we start to see the beginnings of the pay gap.

Occupational segregation: Most Australians work in gender unequal occupations. That is, most of us work in industries that are either dominated by men or dominated by women. Professions that are dominated by women, like nursing, child care, cleaning or teaching tend to be lower paid. And professions that are dominated by men, such as banking, mining, or engineering tend to attract higher salaries. A key contributor to this problem is work that has traditionally been considered the responsibility of women, is work that was historically unpaid and therefore remains undervalued. Loading Reinforcing the problem: So why don't women simply train and work in professions that earn more money? Well, it's not that easy. You see, even when men work in female-dominated professions they are more likely to hold a senior position (and vice versa, women in male-dominated professions tend to hold more junior roles). There are, for example, more men who are high school principals, despite women being the majority of classroom teachers. Women in male-dominated industries report finding it extremely difficult to be taken seriously and to progress through the ranks. A vicious cycle: The problem is compounded with female-dominated industries becoming more flexible around women employees' needs, while there is limited pressure on male-dominated industries to do the same. Young women look at professions like banking or mining and see that they aren't particularly accommodating of caring and other responsibilities (particularly in senior roles) and so they choose a different path. Women are attracted to industries that are more flexible and so those industries that aren't flexible, are under less pressure to change. Sex discrimination: The Workplace Gender Equality Agency says that the single biggest contributor to the gender pay gap is sex discrimination. Employers still exercise bias when making decisions about hiring, promotion and pay. Part of this is strong unconscious gender bias, that dictates how we expect women and men employees to behave and also what their ambitions, abilities and effectiveness are. It's important to note that sex discrimination impacts women from their first day in paid work, often well before they are likely to be having or even thinking about having children.