The gender pay gap in Australian companies is getting narrower, but not by much — and just one in five businesses has eliminated it.
More than 5.3 million workers at almost 10,000 entities today discover if there is a gulf between what their employers say and do about gender equity.
The gap remains substantial — data divulged for only the second time shows massive gender pay gaps at some of our most well-known companies, including many where women are the key customers:
- The average national gender pay gap is 21.8 per cent for total remuneration (including bonuses and penalties)
- That means for every $1 a man earns, women earn 78 cents on average
- This adds up to a yearly difference of $28,425.
"It's a big difference, but we are seeing positive signs," said Mary Wooldridge, the chief executive of the Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA).
WGEA manages the data companies are compelled to submit annually.
"What we're seeing is that the majority of employers are narrowing their gender pay gap … In the last 12 months, 56 per cent of employers reduced [it]. So we've got progress. We need to accelerate that change".
Companies that have a less than 5 per cent average pay gap between men and women in their workforce, in either direction, are considered to have effectively eliminated their pay gap — just 21 per cent of Australian employers have achieved that.
The national average gender pay gap of 21.8 per cent is an increase on last year's figure of 21.7 per cent. While that is a worse result on the face of it, there is a clear reason.
The salary of the chief executive role — typically the highest-paying job in an organisation, and largely held by a man — has been added to the data for this and future years.
If CEO pay was not included, as it was not last year, the latest gap would be 21.1 per cent — a drop of 0.6 percentage points.
The average pay gap is also skewed by some outliers — that is, particularly large gaps at some companies.
If you look at the mid-point, or median, of the average pay gaps, it sits at 12.1 per cent. That means half of businesses have a gap above that level, and half have a gap below.
Employees can see how their company stacks up
New data publicly exposes the gap at every business in Australia with more than 100 staff, meaning many Australians can look up the gap at their employer.
Sydney Ultrasound for Women has an 88 per cent gender pay gap for both base salary and total remuneration, which takes in penalties and bonuses.
This means that for every $1 a man at Sydney Ultrasound for Women earns, a woman working there earns, on average, 12 cents.
Some businesses with the biggest gender pay gaps in base pay include:
- Apprenticeships QLD: 60.6 per cent
- Brisbane Broncos Rugby League Club: 64.1 per cent
- Rex Airlines: 59.3 per cent
This is only the second year the data has been published, and there are some big shifts, not always in a favourable direction.
- Metro Trains Victoria: was 25 per cent, now 8.6 per cent
- University of Newcastle: was 9.9 per cent, now 3.2 per cent
- Dyson Appliances: was 34.1 per cent, now 7.5 per cent
- Seafolly: was 44.5 per cent, now 56 per cent
- Melbourne Business School: was 15.3 per cent, now 36.5 per cent
Federal and state government employers report at a different time, but longer-term scrutiny of the issue means that most have or are closer to eliminating gender pay gaps.
(For example, in 2021-22 the ABC had a whole-of-organisation pay gap of 5.3 per cent favourable to men.)
Workforce representation influences pay gap
Brittney Carroll has been with her employer, big pharmaceutical company GSK, for 14 years, and currently trains new and existing sales staff.
"I've had two babies in that time. I have a four-year-old and an 18-month-old," she said, adding she was also a stepmother to an eight-year-old "So it's very busy."
"I think most working women want to have a family and be a great mum whilst continuing to flourish in their career, and that's something that I felt [the company] has always supported me with."
In the past year, GSK reduced the gender pay gap (the median, on all remuneration) from 7.9 per cent to 1.2 per cent.
On any measure, its figures are vastly better than most Australian companies, and Ms Carroll's story explains some of the reasons the gender pay gap is so much lower than the average.
About six weeks before giving birth to her first child, her "dream job" opened up.
"My initial thoughts were, 'I don't even think I can apply. I'm not even going to be here,'" she recalled.
But encouraged by mentors and successful in winning the role, it was held for her until she returned from paternity leave.
"It was incredibly motivating to know that I was coming back into a role that I had worked really hard for."
David Fitz-Gerald, who runs human resources for the company that has more than 500 staff nationally, said decisions like holding Ms Carroll's more senior job for her all added up.
"For the last few years, we've been really focused on developing our successors for our future roles, and that's actually been a big change that we've seen this year from the last reporting period," he said.
"You can't just make a quick change because ultimately your gender pay gap is most influenced by representation."
That leads to questions about the balance of men and women across all levels of the organisation.
"More often than not, companies are imbalanced the more senior you become, and we were no different in that respect,"
he said.
Naming companies makes a difference
This time last year Australian workers got a big shock.
Companies have been submitting their data to WGEA for almost a decade, which created anonymised industry-by-industry reports and told companies where they sat in their sector.
But you could not see the performance of a particular company — like your employer.
Despite opposition from some business groups, the Labor government changed the law and published the gender pay gaps at every company in Australia with more than 100 employees.
There were substantial gaps at airlines, banks, consulting firms and more. As well, there were companies that had a far stronger result than their competitors despite facing similar pressures.
Ms Wooldridge said publishing gender pay gaps had "definitely" made a big difference.
"What we've what we're seeing with these numbers is, in anticipation of publishing, companies started to take action," she said.
"They were analysing their gender pay gaps. They were consulting with their employees.
"We're getting reports that in job interviews, prospective employees are asking questions about the gender pay gap and what's being done to address it."
Construction sector lags
The mid-point of all employers' average gender pay gap nationally is 12.1 per cent. That means half of employers have a gap above it and half have a gap below it.
But the mid-point for some sectors is very different.
Among the smallest are public administration (2.1 per cent) and arts and recreation (7.2 per cent).
The sectors with the highest mid-points — meaning among the furthest from eliminating the gender pay gap — are professional services (17.4 per cent), rental and real estate services (21.2 per cent) and construction (25.3 per cent).
Mike Zorbas represents them all.
The chief executive of the Property Council of Australia has a swathe of members, many trying to improve the gender equity of their businesses.
"There's been a historic male dominance of both the construction sector and the white-collar aspects of property," he said, describing the issue as broad across society.
Extremely well-paid parts of the industry, like the financiers, had largely had men leading the transactions and getting the payday, Mr Zorbas said.
"When you look at the fact that there's only, in general, 13 per cent women on worksites, you can see that there quite a lot of occupational segregation in those areas."
Across the entire property sector, beyond just construction, the industry is now 26 per cent women.
"But across a workforce of one and a half million people, you really have to be getting much higher," he added.
That is happening.
As part of the Champions of Change Coalition, people such as Mr Zorbas and groups within the industry are pushing each other to move faster and harder towards gender-equity goals.
Healthy competition
Former sex discrimination commissioner Elizabeth Broderick founded the Champions of Change Coalition 15 years ago, and she said the answer was collective action.
"No single organisation can totally close the gender pay gap because it also depends on many things such as sectors, women's ability to both work and care," she said.
"All these things are not just in the purview of the organisation, they're across Australian society."
Now a company director, Ms Broderick said it took leadership to make big change happen.
"When all the CEOs — those with the most power — come together in a particular sector like the property sector, the financial services sector, they step up and they see what each other is doing," she said.
Elements of human nature kick in, no-one wants to be left behind and people learn from others.
It is another reason Ms Broderick welcomes the publication of the data for individual companies.
"The publication … is absolutely essential," she said.
"It does accelerate change. We know that transparency drives change."
How do companies selling to women pay women?
Notably last year, some of the most popular brands in Australia which sell goods largely to women had substantial gender pay gaps.
Since the publication, many of them have shifted the number — to be worse.
In the 2022-23 data, released last year, retailer City Chic Collective, owner of City Chic and Avenue, had a 57.7 per cent gender pay gap for the median base salary. Now it has blown out to 65.1 per cent.
That means for every $1 a man earns at the company, a woman earns, on average, 34.9 cents.
Other female-focused retailers have seen their gender pay gap get worse.
- Retailer Fast Future Brands, owner of TEMT and Valleygirl: was 52.1 per cent, now 62.5 per cent or 37.5 cents in the dollar
- Swimwear retailer Seafolly: was 44.5 per cent, now 55.6 per cent (44.4 cents)
- Clothes chain Forever New: was 50.1 per cent, now 52.8 per cent (57.2 cents)
- Jeweller Pandora: was 47.2 per cent, now 41.3 per cent (58.7 cents)
Others have improved their gender pay gap figures:
- Clothing retailer Sussan: was 26.9 per cent, now 21 per cent (79 cents)
- Accessory giant Lovisa: was 26.4 per cent, now 21.6 per cent (78.4 cents)
- Chain store Decjuba: was 20.9 per cent, now 25.5 per cent (75.4 cents in the dollar)
But the biggest mover has been active-wear retailer Lorna Jane.
Last year, lawyers for Lorna Jane sent letters to the ABC and other media outlets shortly before publication, threatening legal action if the reporting of its gender pay gap was not placed "in proper context".
The letter from HopwoodGanim lawyers erroneously stated the figure was "47 per cent". (In fact, the base salary gap was 36.3 per cent and the total remuneration gap was 37.1 per cent).
This year, those figures are 3 per cent and 2.9 per cent — a stunning reduction that means if a man at Lorna Jane earns $1, a woman earns 97 cents. That is well below the national average and notable given the turnaround from last year's figures.
Lorna Jane was contacted for comment.
Other large brands also have negligible gaps. Make-up retailer Mecca has a 5.5 per cent gender pay gap on its median base salary. Sephora has a -6.4 per cent result, meaning women earn on average more than men in the company.
Not about equal pay for equal work
The gender pay gap — the difference between what men and women are paid in the same organisation — is a persistent problem.
WGEA, which collates the information, describes it like this:
"Gender pay gaps … show the difference between the average or median pay of women and men across organisations, industries and the workforce as a whole."
It is not about "equal pay for equal work".
The fact that men and women should be paid the same for the same work has been enshrined in law for more than 50 years. Any employer who does not pay men and women the same for similar work is breaking the law.
The gender pay gap is more complex.
It comes about through factors such as gender-dominated or previously segregated industries and time out of the workforce.
For example, teaching and so-called caring professions have typically been dominated by women and paid much less than male-dominated fields such as construction.
Women are also more likely to have time out of the workforce to raise children or care for elderly relatives.
Additionally, there is a history of gender discrimination against women and historic barriers to better wages and financial security, such women as making up a higher proportion of workers in part-time roles.
As such, if new parents are choosing which partner should remain home to care for a young child, the female is more likely to earn less money.
It is for these reasons that companies that are reducing their gaps have tended to do similar things: increasing the proportion of women in management roles, turning maternity leave provisions to "paternity leave" (and encouraging men to use it), and auditing where the lowest-paid roles in a company are.
What has worked in the UK
In the UK, the government first published the information in 2017, prompting an explosive response as high-profile companies were forced to defend and fix large gaps between what they paid their male and female staff.
The data made a substantial impact in reducing the gap in future years.
Since publishing the broad data (2010) and the specific company-by-company information (2017), the gender pay gap has fallen by almost a quarter for all employees. It continues to fall.
"The evidence from the UK is that that competitive aspect, comparing to peers, was quite a motivator for senior executives and boards to act," said Mary Wooldridge of WGEA.
"They are competing for the same talent, whether it's retaining their existing staff or whether it's attracting new employees."
Companies explain pay gaps
Some of the companies noted in this article responded to requests for comment.
Monash IVF Group chief people and culture officer Peggy North said in a statement that the majority of the company's workforce, 93 per cent, was female.
"Leadership roles at both Adelaide Fertility Clinic and Sydney Ultrasound for Women, both of which are part of the Monash IVF Group, are held by women," she wrote.
Sydney Ultrasound for Women has an 88 per cent gender pay gap, meaning for every $1 a man at Sydney Ultrasound for Women earns, a woman working there earns, on average, 12 cents.
"The gender pay gaps identified at these organisations are the result of highly specialised roles that are currently held by male employees and skew the overall results."
A Westpac spokesperson said the company had a strategy to increase the number of women in more senior roles and specialist areas, blaming the gap on the number of women in its call centres, retail outlets and operations.
"Closing our gender pay gap is a key priority and we recognise we have more to do," they said.
"It's important to note that when comparing women and men in the same role, where differences can't be explained by a person's skills, experience or performance, we address it."
Anti-DEI push
Australia is not immune from a global push against diversity, equality and inclusion (DEI) programs that aim to support historically marginalised groups such as women, spearheaded by changes made by US President Donald Trump.
Since ABC News interviewed staff at drug company GSK, the global company has dropped diversity targets and goals to avoid breaking laws in the US.
In its annual report, it said: "We are presently working to understand and evaluate the impact of the legal environment.
"We continue to believe that an inclusive culture, with different perspectives and experiences, helps drive superior business performance and deliver better health outcomes for patients."
