Equal pay for equal work is still a long way from reality for women in the media.
Just 2% of women surveyed for the Mates over Merit: The Women in Media Report, said men and women were paid equally in their organisations.
A good 81% acknowledged there is a gender pay gap, which is 23.3% across the wider industry sector of Information, Media and Telecommunications, according to the Workplace Gender Equality Agency.
The pay gap doesn’t disappear if you’re in a female-dominated segment of the media sector – such as working in magazines or periodical publishing where there it’s still at 12.9%.
But where there is less women the gender pay gap is much wider, such as in newspapers (23.2%) and broadcasting (21.8%)
National Women in Media convenor Tracey Spicer said there’s no excuse for the pay gap, given the research is comparing “apples with apples”. “Women are sitting next to men in the same job, at the same level, and being paid significantly less,” she said in a statement. “Several senior female managers are paid less than their male subordinates.”
The survey found only 12.5% of Australian newspaper publishers and 12.5% of broadcasters have completed a remuneration gap analysis over the past year, and none have any specific pay equity objectives. .
Women for Media also points to further research to highlight the problem. According to a 2013 Queensland University of Technology study, just one third of female journalists (35.66%) earn more than $72,000 a year. More than half of all male journalists receive more than that figure.
The Women in Media survey of 1054 Australian journalists was backed by the Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance, and collected data between September and December 2015. More than 90% of the respondents were female.
Previous data released from the survey found that 41% of respondents have experienced harassment, bullying and trolling on social media – covering everything from stalking to ‘mild death threats’. A number of women said they’ve been silenced or have changed careers because of such harassment.
Meanwhile, 48% of female respondents said they have experienced intimidation, abuse or sexual harassment at work.
Women in Media is using the research to make a number of calls for reform, including more audits and action on the entrenched gender pay gap, improved strategies for social media harassment and anti-discrimination policies.