Pillar 1: Economic opportunity and advancement

The labour force participation rate for women aged 15 years and over in NSW is 61.9%. This is lower than men, at 71.9% (November 2023).¹ 

• Among those employed in the NSW Government sector who take paid parental leave, men take an average of 12 days of paid parental leave in a calendar year, compared to 44 days for women (2022).² 
• For those in NSW who report taking paid parental leave in last 12 months, 59% are women and 41% are men (2021).³
• 31.6% of women who want to work are not actively looking for work due to childcare, compared with 2.2% of men (February 2023).⁴ 

• Occupational segregation means whether there is a larger-than-expected presence of one gender over another in a given field of occupation. NSW is currently at a moderate level (0.407) according to The Duncan Segregation Index, which is based on a scale of zero to one (2023).⁵ 
• The proportion of female employees in the top 4 male-dominated industry groups (mining; construction; electricity, gas, water and waste services; and transport, postal and warehousing) is 19.9%, compared with 80.1% for male employees, or approximately one in every five employees (2023).⁶ 

• The gender pay gap in NSW is 11.8% (May 2023) or $11,856 less per year compared with men.⁷ 
• In the NSW public sector, the gender pay gap is at 4.5%. On average, a woman working in the NSW public sector earns $4,304 per year less than a man (2022).⁸ 

The self-reported median total personal income of women aged 15 years and over in NSW is $40,999. This is lower than men’s self-reported median income of $57,703 and equates to a median difference of $16,704 per year (2021).⁹  

The NSW Government, through the Department of Education and NSW Treasury, partnered with job-focused social enterprises to advance the economic wellbeing of women who face increased barriers to economic security, independence and workforce participation.

After an open and competitive selection process, 5 social enterprises were selected to support women over 2 to 4 years. These were:

• Global Sisters, which support single mothers to start their own business   
• Scriibed, which support women who are victim-survivors of domestic and family abuse into technology-enabled flexible work
• Success Works Partners, which supports women with experience of the justice system to gain employment
• The Bread & Butter Project, which supports women who are refugees to gain training and skills to secure work in baking careers
• yourtown, which supports young women (aged 16 to 24 years) who are long-term unemployed with paid experience in its social enterprise.

Women will receive training, gain essential skills and have access to wraparound support to overcome obstacles, with the aim of helping them secure employment, including self-employment.

Investing in women’s economic wellbeing has long-term benefits for the women receiving the support, as well as their families and communities, leading to improved intergenerational outcomes and financial prosperity. Service delivery commenced in August 2023.

The Women in Construction program aims to attract and retain more women in the construction industry, with a focus on increasing the number of women in trade and non-traditional roles.

Currently, women make up approximately 13% of the construction sector, yet only 2% of trade-based roles are held by women. More women in the men-dominated construction industry will help to reduce industry segregation, contribute to reducing the gender pay gap and enhance gender equality.

The NSW Government has invested $20.2 million in the Women in Construction (WIC) Program over 4 years. To date, the Women in Construction (WIC) program has embedded 16 project officers across NSW Government major infrastructure programs. The project officers work with industry to drive change and support subcontractors to meet the pilot targets of 4% of women in trade roles and 7% of women in non-traditional roles.

Year 1 of the Industry Innovation Program, an industry grants program, provided $3.7 million to construction industry organisations for projects that will boost the number of women working in construction trade and non-traditional roles. Successful recipients under Year 2 of the Program will be announced later this year.

From 1 September 2023, all new NSW Government construction projects valued over $10 million that commenced from 1 July 2023 are required to report on the number of women working in trades and women in non-traditional roles. This will help provide an evidence base for participation rates.

The NSW Women in Construction LinkedIn page was launched in September 2023 to share information about initiatives and programs being run across Government and Industry. This complements the Hard Work Knows no Gender campaign, launched in December 2023 to promote gender diversity on construction sites.

1 Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), Labour Force, Australia, November 2023.

2 Public Service Commission (PSC), Workforce data, provided by NSW Treasury, 2022.

3 Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey, 2021.

4 ABS, Potential Workers, February 2023.

5 The Duncan Segregation Index measures the segregation in a field, for example, field of occupation or industry. Values can range from 0, which represents no segregation, to 1, which represents complete segregation. Lower values indicate lower segregation. ABS, Labour Force, Australia, Detailed, 2023.

6 ABS, Labour Force, Australia, Detailed, 2023.

7 The gender pay gap in NSW is the difference in the average weekly ordinary full-time earnings of women and men in the workforce, expressed as a percentage of men’s earnings. ABS, Average Weekly Earnings, Australia, May 2023.

8 PSC, Workforce Profile Report, 2022.

9 The total personal income includes government payments, foreign pensions, scholarships and other irregular income in addition to regular income. HILDA Survey, 2021.