Four days out from International Women’s Day, new data released today reveals that the majority of employers in Australia have gender pay gaps in favour of men.
Some have total remuneration gender pay gaps over 75 per cent.
Some employers have significant gender pay gaps despite being in female-dominated industries like healthcare and childcare.
Some of the worst offending employers market their goods and services specifically to women, such as major fashion retailers.
The data comes from the Workplace Gender Equality Agency’s latest release, which revealed the gender pay gaps of over 9000 employers with more than 100 team members in Australia.
Seventy two per cent of such employers have a gender pay gap in favour of men.
For many such employers, it makes for some embarrassing reading this IWD.
This is the second release of employers’ gender pay gap figures, following the first in February 2024.
This data covers the 2023-2024 period, meaning it doesn’t yet reflect the actions employers may have taken since their gender pay gaps were first published 12 months ago.
We can only hope that progress is to come, especially for companies like Lorna Jane, and Pandora Jewellery (with a 52 per cent total remuneration pay gap), both of which we called out last year, given their excessive pay gaps (Lorna Jane’s is slightly down this year).
This year, City Chic Collective gets a special mention. It’s an ASX-listed retailer offering plus sexes womenswear with a total remuneration pay gap of 67 per cent — where women make up 96 per cent of the workforce.
On IWD back in 2023, City Chic described itself as a brand that “proudly aligns itself with the empowerment of strong, fierce and fabulous women.”
The womenswear brand Forever New has a total remuneration pay gap of 58.5 per cent.
There is Seafolly, with its 62.2 per cent total remuneration pay gap.
And there are many others.
Can’t wait for the IWD special promotional sales emails from these brands!
This data covers the 2023-24 financial year period, so it doesn’t yet take into account actions employers have taken since their gender pay gaps were published publicly for the first time in February 2024.
But of course we’re also living in a current reality where employer-led actions on pay equity may fall under the banner of “Diversity, Equity and Inclusion” which include programs that have already been cut by a number of large multinational tech companies and some fear could further be on the chopping block today.
As WGEA CEO Mary Wooldridge writes for Women’s Agenda today, there’s a difference between effective evidence-based action and merely performative gestures.
Vast gaps in the earnings of women and matter. For women — and especially for Indigenous women and culturally diverse women where the pay gaps are expected to be even larger — these lost earnings contribute to further barriers for women, including their superannuation and retirement savings later only, the choice they have over how they divide their time between paid and unpaid work, and further limitations to escaping domestic and family violence, as ANROWS CEO Dr Tess Boyd-Caine has outlined today. The impact extends far beyond immediate income, Boyd-Caine notes. It means women have fewer financial resources to escape abuse and can face financial insecurity well into their later years.
So check the gender pay gaps of employers this IWD — not only those you work with or are considering in the future, but those you purchase goods and services from. You might find they’re all about “empowering women” only when selling women their goods.