Australia Post Reveal Zero Gender Pay Gap

Australia Post, one of the largest employers in the country with more than 34,000 staff, has closed the gender pay gap.

The company announced at a #CelebratingWomen event on Monday that, for the first time, it had a zero per cent pay gap between men and women across its enterprise.

It marks the organisation’s second year of pay analysis, and comes after the gap was narrowed to 1.4 per cent in 2016, far below the national average of 15.3 per cent.

Acting managing director and group CEO Christine Corbett said achieving gender parity was the result of “targeted programs addressing pay equity and nurturing talent”.

“Australia Post is one of the largest employers in the country, so we are extremely pleased to report that we have reached an average zero per cent pay gap – which underlines our position as a leader when it comes to diversity and inclusion,” Corbett said.

“Over the last seven and a half years we have focused on improving the representation of women across all levels of leadership and addressing unconscious bias. This culminated in October 2015 when we launched our landmark Gender Action Plan to focus and fast-track professional development.

“Since then, we have seen a concerted effort across the board to recognise and champion our female workers. In the last 12 months, over 400 women have participated in our career development programs, which has been instrumental in identifying and nurturing talent.”

According to the latest figures, women account for 37.5 per cent of all management staff at Australia Post with the roles of CEO, CCO, CFO, deputy chair and company secretary all filled by women.

Australia Post also reported that from 30 June 2016 to 30 June 2017, women now account for 44.4 per cent of board members (up from 33.3 per cent), 37.7 per cent of executives (up from 35.4 per cent), 17.7 per cent of delivery managers (up from 14.4 per cent) and 53.6 per cent of postal managers (up from 51 per cent).

The announcement comes just weeks after Australia Post hired Christine Holgate as its new chief executive.

While her predecessor, Ahmed Fahour, came under fire for earning $5.6 million last year, it has been reported that Holgate will earn a base salary of $1.4 million with the potential for another $1.4 million as a bonus. The position remains the highest paid in the public service.

Workplace Gender Equality Agency research and analytics executive manager, Andrew McMahon, told Pro Bono News the number of employers proactively addressing gender pay equity were in the minority.

“The overwhelming majority of Australian organisations have an overall gender pay gap in favour of men,” McMahon said.

“The agency’s dataset shows gender pay gaps exist for full-time employees across every industry, occupation and manager group.

“However, a minority of employers proactively address gender pay equity. Just 27 per cent of organisations reported in 2015-16 that they had conducted a gender pay gap analysis. Of those organisations, half said they had taken some kind of action.”

He said there were a number of barriers to pay equity.

“Closing an organisation-wide gender pay gap means that average female salaries are equivalent to average male salaries across the organisation,” he said.

“The main barriers to pay equity in organisations are pay discrepancies for women and men in like roles as well as underrepresentation of women in senior, technical and other high-paying roles.

“If Australia Post has achieved a zero pay gap, it is an impressive outcome.”