Businesses must better recognise the value of Executive Assistants, especially the wide range of skills that EAs provide. Chief Writer of the Australian Assembly of Administrators, Marika Garton, shares this piece.
Businesses are coming up with creative new job titles and departments for their Executive Assistants, which seems to suggest leaders are finally starting to recognise they providing more than ‘just the admin’, as they begin to utilise their superpowers in a broader capacity across the business. However, the reality is that there is still a gap to be breached when it comes to putting their money where their mouth is.
The administrative profession in Australia still experiences salary disparity compared to other industries.
According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, administrative professionals still earn below the average salary in Australia. Not to mention that the profession is predominately female (something we are also hoping to see change). And, according to the current Workplace Gender Equity Agency (WGEA) data, women are paid $253.50 a week less than their male counterparts.
It’s all very nice to create new titles or departments in a bid to attract talent or retain high-level operators, but when there are 160 different admin job titles globally according to the Global Skills Matrix, it’s not fancy new titles we need: it’s fair and equal pay. The administrative profession salaries should be geared towards the skill level of the roles they perform and valued for jobs already in the business.
Businesses complaining of ‘talent shortages’ should begin by clarifying the job’s required skill level and remunerating it accordingly. You can’t ask for Cristal and think you can pay Spumante prices.
Champagne, the calibre of Cristal, comes from the quality of its fruit and the method in which it is made. The same can be said for high-quality Executive Assistants. They are who they are because of the quality of the superpowers they have that are inherent to them, and the method in which they deploy them within the work environment. Strategic, agile Executive Assistants that can operate as an extension of the CEO, are different from your everyday variety of administrative professionals. They are, like Cristal, limited productions that are highly priced due to the excellence of the skills they have harvested throughout their careers.
And while we have seen a promising step in the right direction with the gender pay gap for the Administrative Profession in Australia decreasing from 15.1% in 2021 to 11.8% in 2022, according to the WGEA Gender Scorecard 2022, there’s still work to be done.
It starts with challenging the archaic descriptions that are attached to the industry. How can we solely blame businesses for thinking they should be able to use their Spumante budget for their Cristal taste, when the Australian Government guidelines still refer to the Administrative Profession as ‘Clerks’ in the award outlined by Fairwork?
By Fairwork Australia’s definition, they restrict the profession’s skills to “recording, typing, calculating, invoicing, billing, charging, checking, receiving and answering calls, cash handling, operating a telephone switchboard, attending a reception desk and administrative duties of a clerical nature”. But ther’es more. According to the National Skills Commission of Australia, “Clerical and Administrative Workers provide support to businesses by organising, storing, manipulating and retrieving information.” They also go on to say, “the age profile of this occupation is relatively old, with close to a quarter of workers aged 55 years or older.”
With those kinds of descriptions, it’s no wonder businesses have trouble understanding what Executive Assistants are capable of. And while other industry awards have provisions for ‘clerical duties’ that may lean towards better pay rates, if outdated explanations and perceptions of what an administrative professional does, how will the profession be valued for its true worth?
The administrative profession is diverse, filled with people of all ages, genders, and backgrounds working across all sectors. Duties range from Level 1 Front of House roles all the way through to Level 5 Chief of Staff roles. Those working at a Level 4 and Level 5 category are the wheelhouse of their businesses, working in a leadership and advisory capacity to the CEO.
Perhaps as the percentage of men in the profession starts to increase (as it so rightly should), we will begin to see an increase in the overall salaries for the administrative profession. After all, an influx of men into roles stereotypically associated with women worked to boost salary levels in other employment sectors. But first, we’ve got to shift the old view of it being a ‘transactional role for older women’ who are only there to type and get coffee.
Here, hold my drink. I’m off to talk strategy and agile leadership with some incredible men who also happen to be Senior Executive Assistants … and you better believe we’re drinking Cristal, because we know our worth. Even if businesses don’t.
Remember, “It’s not just a job. It’s a career.”