This Week in Talent (8th March)

I’m Natalie from equidi, dropping in for a guest TWIT-post for the week of women. Yes, it’s that time of the year again – International Women’s Day (IWD) is today, 8 March. The cupcakes are ordered, and so is the guest speaker or maybe even the panel. You’re ready for the photo shoot to show how gender diverse your workplace is. What could be sweeter than that?

The United Nations (UN) theme for this year’s IWD is Count Her In – Invest in Women and Accelerate Progress. And it probably would have glossed over well as a celebratory moment – until the Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA) published just shy of 5,000 company’s gender pay gaps last week – and the world became aware that women have been counted out when it comes to average pay & earnings across the country.

So, what have we learnt from this so far – here are the not-so-sweet facts:

• The national median (total remuneration) gender pay gap is 19%
• That half of employers (50%) have a gender pay gap over 9.1%
• 62% of employers have a gender pay gap in favour of men
• 8% have a gender pay in favour of women
• The target guidance set by the WGEA for what an acceptable gender pay gap range is -5 to +5%
• The worst-performing industries were construction, finance, & professional services, scientific & tech.

The World Economic Forum projects it will take 131 years to close the global gender pay gap; it is estimated in Australia to take 26 years to close our gap. To put this into perspective, for most of us – that will not be in our working lifetime.

So, who did have the biggest gender pay gaps in corporate Australia? Here is a list of the ASX 200 and Australia’s largest private companies. You may want to sit down before reading this:

Now, back to IWD today – where I’ll leave you with my final thoughts. You can count me out of tokenism and grand gesturing, but you can count me in on taking action. Action starts with awareness and understanding, so this month, I’m hitting the road. I’m travelling to all major capital cities across Australia to share my findings and take on gender pay gap transparency and, most importantly, to talk about how your organisations can best prepare for the next reporting season which is upon us from 1 April – 31 May this year. Count me in for that.

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Let’s double down our efforts to boost women’s economic empowerment.

What does it really mean to ‘count her in’? Hear from Simone Clarke (CEO of UN Women Australia) on how progress accelerates with greater investment.

The truth is out there – check out the WGEA Data Explorer

Want to see employers’ gender pay gaps or how they are doing more broadly on creating gender equity? All the info you need is right here! Warning – you could unintentionally get into a vortex here. I know I did. 

Australia’s first gender equality strategy will be released this week.

Another history-making moment on the gender equity front – This week, Katy Gallagher (Minister for Women) will release Australia’s first-ever gender equality strategy. Check out what to expect from it here.

Closing the gender pay gap means redefining Australia’s modern workplace

Gender pay gap transparency rocked more than the corporates, it’s rocked the start-up world too. Should a similar system apply to the venture capital world when it comes to funding female founders?

Bonuses and overtime drive 19% gender pay gap

Ever wondered how additional employee payments such as bonuses or overtime impact the national gender pay gap? Read here to learn how total remuneration raises our gender pay gap.

These companies nailed the gender pay gap challenge, but it wasn’t easy.

There was so much press last week on those who didn’t do well with the gender pay gap, but we should take a moment to celebrate and learn from those who have excelled when it comes to creating more equitable and inclusive workplaces.

Labor pledges 12% superannuation on publicly funded paid parental leave

We’re thrilled with the announcement of the government pledge to contribute 12% superannuation on top of publicly funded parental leave. Parental leave is the only leave type that doesn’t attract superannuation; we’re thrilled to hear of this pledge and support it being legislated and implemented in 2025.