Gender pay gaps in STEM and other industries

Every year the Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA) reports on Gender Equality Indicators for private sector employers with 100 or more employees across 19 industries. This includes STEM-qualified industries.

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Data insights

In STEM industries in 2024, the pay gap between women’s and men’s full-time total remuneration, which includes discretionary pay, was $29,121, or 16%. This pay gap is slightly higher than it was in 2023, when it was $26,420 (16%). Despite this, progress has been made since 2016 when the gender pay gap was 22%.

The gender pay gap for all industries, which includes STEM, health, and non-STEM industries, also increased from 19% in 2023 to 23% in 2024. For health industries, the pay gap increased from 16% in 2023 to 18% in 2024.

In 2024, the STEM industries with the largest percentage gender pay gaps were:

• machinery and equipment repair and maintenance, 26%, an increase from 24% in 2023. This gap has increased since 2016, when it was 25%.
• architectural, engineering and technical services, 22%, the same as 2023. This gap has decreased since 2016, when it was the largest of all STEM industries at 33%.
• electricity generation, 21%, a decrease from 22% in 2023. This gap has decreased since 2016, when it was 29%.
• oil and gas extraction, 21%, a decrease from 23% in 2023. This gap has decreased since 2016, when it was 28%. Oil and gas extraction had the largest gender pay gap in dollar terms: $70,499, up from $67,163 in 2023.

About the data

The industries mentioned on this page align with Australian and New Zealand Standard Industrial Classification (ANZSIC) codes. In the STEM Equity Monitor, industries are defined as STEM industries when more than 50% of people in the industry reported a STEM qualification in the 2021 Census of Population and Housing.

This data is from private sector employers with 100 or more employees that reported to the WGEA.

The 2020–21 WGEA dataset was smaller because of the impacts of COVID-19, changes to their reporting platform that year, and changes to the way corporate groups reported using the new platform. Data is not available for some industries because of sample sizes that are too small.

Large changes in gender pay gap data between 2020–21 and 2021–22 could be caused by employers self-reporting their ANZSIC industry to WGEA.

See the WGEA’s dataset.

Read more about our methodology and this data.