It pays to be a man: gender pay gap at large Australian employers exposed

The key? Promoting women from within at the Housing Industry Association, including female president Debbie Johnson, has now more than closed the gap.

"We've been able to promote a number of women from within the HIA into quite senior positions," HIA's managing director Jocelyn Martin told The Canberra Times.

"For an industry that tends to be fairly male-dominated to have some women who are professionally from the construction industry able to move into senior positions around the country has been really important to us."

That shift and what has been described as a transparent pay negotiation process and an apprentice team of close to 1000 mainly young males on lower pay rates explains the association body reporting a base salary pay gap of 79.3 per cent in favour of women and a total remuneration pay gap of 82.7 per cent in favour of women.

"I'm really happy with the balance that we have, but I think that you almost do have to sometimes watch so it is not going to tip the other way," Ms Martin said.

"Best person for the job at the end of the day but, as I say, we've been able to grow these people through the organisation and that's what we're all most proud of."

Women are ahead in a substantial way over men at just 8 per cent of Australia's larger private sector employers, a landmark release by the Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA) of gender pay gap data shows.

It is not naming and shaming exercise, according to WGEA. More a call to action.

"The evidence [overseas] is that it has led to a reduction in gender pay gaps. It's not a silver bullet. It hasn't been a massive drop, but that the drop has also been sustained," WGEA chief Mary Wooldridge said.

For the first time, every non-government organisation with at least 100 staff is required by law to disclose the difference in men's and women's pay packets by publishing the median gender pay gaps for base salary and total package - including bonuses and overtime.

The results of nearly 5000 such employers can now be seen in a bid to drive down gender inequality, while employers can have an accompanying statement published to give context to results.

About 10 per cent took the offer up and the reasons for results vary.

The national median total remuneration gender pay gap has come in at 19 per cent in favour of men, a better result overall than the total remuneration Australian gender pay gap of 21.7 per cent WGEA released in November.

The target is no gap. And 30 per cent of employers have a median gender pay gap between the target range of either 5 per cent in favour of women and 5 per cent in favour of men.

"It's highly complex, it's highly variable and it reinforces that there are there's no one-size-fits-all solution in relation to this and individual employers have to do their work and even those who are performing well in terms of the results have to be vigilant to maintain it," Ms Wooldridge said. "And there's even a zero median gender pay gap doesn't mean there's no gender inequality.

Now 62 per cent of median employer gender pay gaps are over 5 per cent and in favour of men, while 8 per cent are over 5 per cent in favour of women.

The highest gender pay gap reported in favour of men was reported at Newcastle healthcare provider Hunter Primary Care, where the base salary pay gap and the total remuneration pay gap is 73.1 per cent.

Relatively high annualised GP salaries are over-represented in Hunter Primary Care's calculation and they have a high percentage (37.5 per cent) of casual GPs who may only work several hours a month.

"Our organisation's figure is skewed considerably due to the unique makeup of our workforce. It also does not properly reflect Hunter Primary Care's commitment to gender pay equality," CEO Brenda Ryan said in a statement.

Apart from a female CEO, three of Hunter Primary Care's five senior leadership positions are held by women. The company said when GP salaries are removed the gender pay gap drops to 2 per cent.

"The report has provided us an opportunity to reflect on what we are currently doing well and where we can improve," Ms Ryan said.

The next biggest total remuneration gap favouring men nationwide is Energizer Australia at 64.9 per cent.

Every Australian industry has a pay gap skewed in favour of men, the WGEA data released on February 27 shows.

Male-dominated industries with higher pay rates such as construction (31.8 per cent) and mining (15.1 percent) have the largest gender pay gap in favour of men. Female-dominated industries such as accommodation and food services (1.9 per cent), health care and education and training (5.2 per cent) have the lowest pay rates and the smallest median gender pay gap.

For WGEA, it is a catalyst for employer change and a conversation starter for employees, particularly prospective employees.

"This is transparency and accountability that is actually beneficial to employees, to the community, and to the nation as a whole because gender equality is beneficial on all of those those levels," Ms Wooldridge said.

"Employers can choose how they respond in relation to the publishing of this information. We're not requiring them to do anything if they don't choose to do. But I think they fail to act on gender equality at their peril."

The median gender pay gap is not the average. It is the difference between the median of what a man is paid and the median of what a woman is paid within an organisation. Over a year, the median of what a woman is paid is $18,461 less than the median of what a man is paid.

A total of 3057 or 61.6 per cent of reporting employers have a pay gap that favours men, while 412 or 8.3 per cent favour women, and 1493 or 30.1 per cent have a neutral pay gap.

At the extreme end, Adelaide not-for-profit disability support provider Barkuma reported a 502 per cent base salary pay gap in favour of women and a total package pay gap of 444 per cent. Perth-based disability services and support provider Workpower Incorporated has a 256.2 percent total package pay gap.

"They have supported work and the pay rates are quite low, so the gender pay gap can end up disproportionately low as a result of that," Ms Wooldridge explained.

The figures show that Canberra recruiter Whizdom has a 63.1 per cent base salary pay gap in favour of men and a 58.8 per cent total package pay gap. The Canberra Times reached out to Whizdom, but did not get a response.

Sonic Healthcare Australia, the NSW parent company of Canberra Imaging, reported a base salary pay gap of 46.4 per cent in favour of men and a total remuneration page gap of 46.6 per cent in favour of men.

A nationwide challenge in finding specialist medical practitioners such as radiologists and nuclear medicine specialists is behind the result, according to Julian Adler, Sonic Healthcare Australia, Radiology Division, CEO and radiologist.

"Despite our continuous efforts to recruit more female radiologists, only 12 per cent of our radiologists are women," he told The Canberra Times.

"As the salaries of our medical specialists are substantially higher than those of our other staff members, the gender discrepancy among our doctors results in significant skewing of our overall pay gap."

Canberra-based defence solutions company Omni Executive reported a 36 per cent total remuneration pay gap in favour of men and a 34.9 per cent base salary gap. This masthead reached out, but did not get a response.

The Trustee for the Sidaros Family Trust, the company of local McDonald's mogul Hani Sidaros, reported no gender pay gap.

Canberra Grammar had a 27.7 per cent total remuneration page gap in favour of women, Radford College had a 14.2 per cent total package gap, and the pay gap at Marist College came in at 4.1 per cent in favour of women. Daramalan College had no pay gap reported, and Canberra Girls Grammar had a 4.8 per cent total remuneration pay gap in favour of men.

The Catholic Education Office in the Archdiocese of Canberra and Goulburn, in charge of 56 Catholic schools and eight Catholic preschools in the region and employing between 1000 and 4999 employees, has a 6 per cent total package and base salary pay gap in favour of men.

The University of Canberra had a total remuneration page gap of 2.3 per cent and a base salary pay gap of 3.6 per cent, while the Australian National University had a total remuneration page gap of 7.6 per cent in favour of men and a base salary pay gap of 7.9 per cent.

Virtually all mining companies (95 per cent) have pay gaps in favour of men, 92 per cent of electricity, water, gas and waste services have pay gaps favouring men and the figure for financial and insurance services is 90 per cent.

Major airlines have significant gender pay gaps. Jetstar has a total remuneration page gap of 43.7 per cent in favour of men, while Qantas Airways came in at 37 per cent, and Virgin Australia is 41.7 per cent.

Media and telecommunication companies have pay gaps skewed in favour of men. Nine Entertainment reported a total remuneration pay gap of 10.1 per cent, Seven West Media was 13.8 per cent, Telstra was 20.2 per cent, and Google Australia came in at 14.9 per cent.

Meantime, Facebook Australia has a total remuneration pay gap of 2.6 per cent in favour of women.

The Collingwood football club has a total remuneration pay gap of 44 per cent and a base salary pay gap of 42 per cent.

But the Sydney Swans had a 4.3 per cent total package pay gap in favour of women and a 6.3 per cent base salary gap.

The AFL, overall, reported no gender pay gap, as did Football Australia.

The Canberra Raiders Sports Club as an employer has a 2.6 per cent total package pay gap and a 2.3 per cent base salary gap.

The NRL has a 3.9 per cent total remuneration pay gap and a 7.3 per cent base salary gap in favour of men, while Rugby Australia reported a total remuneration and base salary pay gap of 31.2 per cent in favour of men.

Minister for Women Katy Gallagher hopes the availability of gender pay gap data will drive employer action.

"The release of employer gender pay gaps marks a historic step towards transparency and accountability in addressing gender inequality," Senator Gallagher said in a statement.

"The gender pay gap is a persistent and complex problem that costs the Australian economy $51.8 billion every year."

The data for private companies with 100 or more employees comes after the commonly cited gender pay gap based on average earnings data from full-time workers, published by the Australian Bureau of Statistics, came out at a record low 12 per cent.

The ABS statistics showed a stronger growth in average full-time earnings for women compared with men.

As well, WGEA reported an Australian gender pay gap in November, based on total remuneration data, from 5135 employer reporting groups covering 4,822,194 employees, of 21.7 per cent.