The average woman is still not being paid the same as the average man, according to a recent report by the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

The annual employee earnings report found the average male worker was earning $1,227 a week, while the average female earned $819 a week. "Women's pay has remained between 82-85% of men's pay since 1990.

It's completely unacceptable that, in 2011, this situation still prevails," said Helen Conway, director of Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Agency (EOWA).

EOWA yesterday announced that the annual Equal Pay Day Australia event will take place in Australia on 1 September.

Equal Pay Day Australia calls on businesses to take action to eliminate gender pay discrimination.

"I challenge businesses to step-up and use Equal Pay Day to drive action in their workplaces," Conway said. "Gender pay equity can be a difficult issue to address and EOWA is committed to assisting employers take action to achieve equity."

Less than 40% of companies surveyed by EOWA in 2010 conducted an annual gender pay equity analysis.

Of the organisations that did conduct an analysis, just over half put together an action plan to address the gender pay gap.

To close the 17.2% gender pay gap, women would have to work an extra 63 days to match what men earn.

Symbolically, Equal Pay Day is timed to coincide with the expiry of this extra period calculated from financial year-end.