Today is 59 days since the end of the financial year - the extra time it would take women, on average, to earn the same amount as men did that year.

The national gender pay gap remains at 14%, meaning men earn on average $253.60 more than women per week.

Read more: Women's unemployment doubled, men's halved in Bendigo during COVID-19 crisis

On average women working full time earned $1558 per week, while men earned $1812.

Women's Health Loddon Mallee chief executive Tricia Currie said gender equality was a driver in good health and preventing violence against women.

Ms Currie said women's earning was part of a broader picture around the causes of gender inequality, but an important one.

She said Women's Health Loddon Mallee was concerned about how disruption of the pandemic - and loss of earning for women - will affect a generation of women's earnings.

Australian Bureau of Statistics data shows women in the Bendigo region have been hit the hardest by falling employment during 2020.

Read more: City of Greater Bendigo releases draft gender equity strategy

Unemployment among Bendigo region women has doubled since January, whereas among men it has halved.

Ms Currie said one of the pandemic's ramifications had been more uncounted labour, whether it be online learning, care for the aged, or care for the young.

She said these were either undervalued because they were not paid, or not counted, despite being "extraordinarily essential" during the pandemic.

Ms Currie said the crisis could affect a generation's of women's earning, unless it was redressed.

She said many stimulus packages had been for predominantly male industries.

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Central Victorians businesses could make sure they were paying employees equally by opening up the conversation about gender equity in their business, Ms Currie said.

Ms Currie said this could mean looking at their business systems to see how they could be changed to increase equity.

She said some of this could be structural, for instance, the type of career path that the business offered, or the hours of work available.

It could also be a cultural attitude within the business, Ms Currie said.

Ms Currie said Equal Pay Day was one that called those in the Loddon Mallee to have an open discussion, to find solutions.

"It's generally not deliberate," she said.

"If we don't take the time to stop and think that there's an equity issue that can be addressed. ... then the gender pay gap just continues to open up."

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