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Shock, horror…we have a gender pay gap problem in corporate Australia!
On 27 February, the Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA) released data on median gender pay gaps* of over 5,000 private sector employers with 100 or more employees noting that publishing employer gender pay gaps aims to help accelerate employer action. This data has been collected for many years but never published in this fashion. Just under a third of employers have a median pay gender gap within the target range of -5% and +5%.
For an agency dedicated to reputation management, this occasion raised a number of important communication issues for companies.
Companies with the ‘worst’ results were naturally in the firing line and many were outed for their poor performance. Some companies chose to address the issue head on, others did not. From our perspective here are some reflections learnt from their responses:
Several CEOs gave strong accounts of their ‘poor’ results by explaining the background to their results and importantly, what they were doing to get better. Aware Super and a2 Milk were stand outs in this regard. They certainly gained respect by being prepared to ‘front up’.
Not surprisingly, many chose to say nothing. Normally this would not be our preferred option but given the huge number of ‘targets’, this reticence may have paid off in this instance, although given this data will be released annually this approach will not work forever. Of course, it is still vital for these companies to engage with their staff on the matter. In a tight labour market this issue is one that definitely changes staff behaviour.
The gender pay equity issue is a complex one and in many sectors it is the result of structural matters that have existed for decades. The CEOs who took the time to explain these factors (and their plans to take action) enhanced their reputation and the broader understanding of these issues.
Companies have been aware for some time when the data would be released and what would be highlighted in the WGEA reports. We noticed that some of the companies with good news to tell had their stories ready to go onto their social media channels. Others had their good stories to tell via newspaper features.
Corporate affairs practitioners across many of the 5,000 companies will no doubt be reviewing the data released, how they prepared, how they responded, and the outcomes as per feedback from external stakeholders and their staff. Critically this will help drive their responses for February 2025. As the head of the WEGA, Mary Wooldridge said, ‘Particularly for those employers whose gender pay gaps are higher than their Industry peers, publication of the results today is a catalyst for action and change.’
* Companies are reporting two sets of pay-gap figures. The first is the median gap in base salary, excluding super, bonuses, overtime and other employee payments. Part-time and casual salaries have been converted into annualised full-time equivalent salaries. The second is the median gap in total remuneration, which includes salary and all other employee payments.
