Gender equality inaction is costing women and the state alike
State government reform on gender equality is almost a year overdue, writes McKell Institute SA/NT executive director Hannah MacLeod, while a growing number of women are retiring into poverty and struggling to put a roof over their heads.
Women aged 55 and over are the fastest-growing cohort experiencing homelessness in South Australia. Many have worked full-time for decades, yet earned less than men – and ended up with little in their super.
This is the gender pay gap.
And in South Australia, it is widening. The latest ABS data shows women in SA now earn 10.1 per cent less than men, up from 6.7 per cent in May 2023.
It isn’t just an abstract number — it’s real and it’s driving people into poverty and threatening our economic prosperity.
Regardless of gender, the widening gap should worry you because the gender pay gap discourages productivity, slows innovation, and reduces workforce participation. It means less money flowing through local businesses, less superannuation in accounts, and more pressure on the taxpayer to do the heavy lifting. It also weakens the very industries we rely on the most – care, health, education.
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The gender pay gap is the antithesis to prosperity and opportunity.
And the reasons for it? Women’s work is undervalued, under appreciated, and underpaid. When pay is tied to gender rather than merit, it doesn’t just hurt women – it distorts the labour market and holds all of us back.
This isn’t just my opinion – the South Australian Government agrees.
The Malinauskas Government hit the ground running on gender equality following its election – it acted swiftly to commission a taskforce and repeatedly committed to a Gender Equality Act. Last year’s Budget even promised consultation on a Gender Equality Bill by the end of 2024.
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In handing down its landmark final report last year, the Government’s own taskforce warned: “There is a critical and urgent opportunity to address the gender pay gap to remove some of the key barriers faced by women so that all South Australians have the opportunity to thrive.”
Unfortunately, since then, there’s been silence. No consultation, no updates, no Bill. It’s now almost a year overdue. Progress has stalled, and so too has political momentum. That ‘urgent opportunity’ cited by the Government’s own taskforce is slipping away.
Of course, I am not ignorant to the pressing and unexpected challenges the Government has had to address in recent months: the Whyalla steelworks collapse, the devastating drought, the Port Pirie smelter bailout, and now the algae bloom that’s devastating both industry and our environment. The Government also deserves recognition for its important work in the women’s space — particularly the Royal Commission into Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence. Given this, a bit of grace is reasonable – but too much constitutes inaction, costing women and the state alike.
This isn’t about catching the Government out. I believe the Premier and his team still recognise the need for action on gender equality. But you can’t bank good intentions, and we can’t keep waiting. Not when the gap is widening by so much so quickly. Not when a growing number of women are retiring into poverty and struggling to put a roof over their heads. Not when the state’s own expert group outlined a roadmap nearly a year ago.
At the McKell Institute, we know good public policy can make a difference to people’s lives – but only when it’s implemented, not left on a shelf to gather dust.
The Federal Government has shown what’s possible: the national gender pay gap has narrowed as women’s workforce participation and pay have lifted. That progress is no accident. It’s the result of deliberate action—backing minimum wage rises, improving flexible work, and lifting wages in undervalued, feminised sectors like aged care and early childhood education.
The hesitation to act in South Australia isn’t a case of complexity holding things up. The problem has been identified, and the groundwork has been done. The taskforce has done its job, the blueprint exists, and the commitment has been made. What’s missing is action.
The longer we delay, the more women retire with less, the more families struggle, and the more our economy falls behind. Closing the gender pay gap isn’t just good for women—it’s good for South Australia. The time for action is now.
