WGEA’s Data Shows The Gender Pay Gap Still Exists, If You Believe The Numbers

The Workplace Gender Equality Agency released its gender pay gap figures yesterday. It’s the first year that all businesses with more than 100 staff had to report the numbers—giving the world a wider look at the advertising, marketing, media and tech industries.

As with last year, some businesses have performed admirably. Others less so.

But the goalposts have shifted somewhat. Some agencies, for instance, have found their staffing numbers reported at half the level they were last year—and have told B&T that those numbers aren’t right. It’s also worth noting that very few companies at all provided employer statements with the results—another stark change from last year. B&T also knows of one instance where a fat-fingered data enterer at WGEA accidentally gave one business 300 extra staff than it really has.

Sorrel Kesby, GumGum’s head of global commercial operations and co-founder of EvenBetter.ai, a Sydney-based startup looking that seeks to help companies improve their gender pay gap had this to say about the numbers.

“[The numbers are] more robust given the update to methodology this year (inclusion of average salary) but it’s still a black box,” she said.

She also said that the holdco-level reporting was better than last year, though perhaps some of the largest businesses in the industry might not have seen the improvements that they thought they would.

“Organisations who maybe got a ‘decent’ score last year clearly thought they didn’t have to do anything more either generally or compared to their peers,” Kesby added.

TrinityP3 general manager Lydia Feely says that although some companies have made progress, there remains significant work to be done in our industry.

“What is clear is that many adland and media businesses have a significant difference in how they pay their staff, based on gender, and we need to do more to close the ongoing pay gap.”

But Kesby (and many others) told B&T that it was important to remember that all these figures are 10 months old at best.

B&T reporters Arvind Hickman, Fredrika Stigell and Tom Fogden have split up the industry between media owners, the large tech platforms and agencies, respectively. Find out everything below. But we’d approach these numbers with a pinch of salt.

Media Owners

Top of the class: Nova, Guardian, oOh! & Ten

There are three media companies that stood out for better balanced gender pay gaps – Nova Entertainment, Guardian News Media and Ten.

For this WGEA report, Nova’s median base pay gap is 13.1 per cent in favour of women, while nearly two-thirds of its headcount are women and at general manager level, the gender split is even.

The salary of CEO Peter Charlton, COO Peter Colosimo and other senior men could be a reason why men’s average total remuneration is 14 per cent higher than women.

Nova is one of the businesses that said its total headcount was omitted by a typo, but it still doesn’t report the gender pay gap across all of its radio stations, including on air talent where salary division is likely to deepen. It would be useful to see Nova report gender pay gap figures across its whole network in future.

Guardian News Media’s pay gap favoured women across the board. Its median base salary is 2.4 per cent in favour of women and average total remuneration of 3.5 per cent also skews to women. The Guardian’s workforce and leadership team are skewed towards women, including CEO Lenore Taylor.

Of the major TV networks, Ten continues to lead the way reporting a median base pay gap of 6.7 per cent, which is down from 7.5 per cent a year ago. The network’s median total remuneration increased by one point to 6.5 per cent.

Nonetheless, this is a market leading split among the commercial TV stations.

oOh!media had another strong performance with its total media remuneration in favour of women by 5.9 per cent and the media base salary in favour of -1.7 per cent. This year both metrics swung in favour of men; in last year’s report oOh! reported media base salary of -9.9 and total median remuneration of -15.7 per cent. The outdoor company, led by Cathy O’Connor is well ahead of the curve.

That said, its Ooh!Media Street Furniture arm reported a 10.2 per cent total median and 5.6 per cent base median salary gaps—though the figures oOh! proclaimed yesterday (a median total pay gap of -1.7 per cent and a median base salary pay gap of -5.9 per cent) combine the two.

Mamamia’s reverse gap

Mamamia led the way when it came to ensuring women get at least equal pay with its median base salary in favour of women by 17 per cent. This reduced to 15.7 per cent per cent in favour of women for average total remuneration due to some senior male executives during the reporting such as then-CEO Justin Lavigne.

Male managers accounted for 15 per cent compared with Mamamia’s workforce which skews 93 per cent female.

With Natalie Harvey succeeding as CEO mid-2024, expect the average to skew further in favour of women in the next reporting period.

Mamamia’s heavily skewed female workforce means it has a pronounced gender pay gap, albeit a rare one that favours women.

Nine’s pay gap widens

Australia’s largest media company widened its gender pay gap across the two comparable media metrics year-on-year.

Nine’s median base pay gap of 14.5 per cent, which is one percentage point worse than last year. Nine’s median total remuneration also rose from 10.1 per cent to 15.3 per cent.

The media giant provided an employer statement combining the figures and providing context around the actions it is taking to close the gap.

Nine said the reason for its widening gender pay gaps is: “the under-representation of women in senior leadership or higher-paying senior roles, combined with the higher representation of women in the typically lower-paying roles”.

Nine said it is working on an organisation-wide cultural transformation to improve the outcomes for women, including a leadership program, supporting its Gender Equity Community to highlight disparities and implementing Parents@Nine policies, among other initiatives.

Seven West Media stays steady

Seven West Media reported a median base salary of 11.5 per cent this year, which is marginally worse than its 10.8 per cent a year ago.

Its average total remuneration pay gap of 13.9 per cent is almost the same as a year ago.

By seniority, 70 per cent of Seven’s key managers during the reporting period were men.

The group has three parts, including its TV business Seven Network which reported a median base of 8.8 per cent and a median total remuneration of 8.8 per cent.

These figures are likely to shift after long-serving male leaders including chief revenue officer Kurt Burnette and Melbourne head of sport and managing director Lewis Martin and left the business in a corporate restructure just afterwards.

West Australian Newspapers had a higher median base salary of 16.1 per cent, while the regional TV network Prime reported a 3.4 per cent median base salary.

News Corp on track

Australia’s other largest media company, News Corp Australia, reported that men had an average total remuneration package 10.5 per cent higher than women and total median remuneration was 5.6 per cent more.

News Corp Australia’s figures include Australian News Channel, Nationwide Newspapers, News Life Media, Medium Rare and Nationwide News.

In an accompanying statement, News Corp Australia said: “Aligned to WGEA reporting requirements, News Corp Australia continues to make reducing the gender pay gap a priority. Our pay gap continues to reduce year on year and remains significantly lower than the average for employers in our industry. While this is a continuing positive trend, we remain committed to additional efforts that will result in further reductions.”

Work to be done…

The media companies that had the widest gender pay gaps include 2GB Sydney, where men on average were paid 50 per cent more than women, although this discrepancy concentrated among the highest earners, perhaps male radio presenters, as the median gaps are low double digits.

WIN Corporation is another with high average gaps, while Rural Press had high gaps of well above 20 per cent across average and median metrics.

Check out the full list of media gender pay gap figures at the end of this feature.

Agencies

Assessing the performance of agencies in Australia is challenging, to say the least. Different businesses report their numbers very differently, with some agencies giving their numbers at a group level, others individually.

WGEA’s change mandating all companies with more than 100 employees to report separately has led to a number of goalposts moving—and some quite significantly.

Some agencies have also told B&T that they’ve questioned the numbers published about them by WGEA on the back of the data they’ve provided. In truth, it’s quite hard to make heads-or-tails of the numbers for agencies and agency groups—whether comparing year-on-year or across the industry as a whole.

The Ad Council told B&T: “As WGEA itself states, there is evidence of progress. It’s not flashy. It’s slow, but the barriers to fair access to opportunities and outcomes are being improved through the deliberate, careful action of employers.”

The Media Federation of Australia, meanwhile, told B&T: “In our own industry, media agencies are among the most gender-equitable employers in Australia. While the MFA Industry Census does not measure the gender pay gap, it does assess pay parity. Our data shows that we have effectively achieved pay parity over the past seven years, with reported variations ranging from -1 per cent to 4 per cent in the salaries of men and women in similar roles.

“What’s not there yet, and what I would like to see, is acceleration in the percentage of women in leadership roles, so that it’s in line with the general population of media agencies being 62% women.”

Here are some worth mentioning.

Howatson+Company

Howatson+Company’s gender pay gap experienced quite a significant reduction, with its median base gap dropping from 25.5 per cent to 12.1 per cent and its total gap reducing similarly from 25.5 per cent to 12.1 per cent.

Now, that’s not to say it’s perfect. But it’s worth calling out how Howatson+Co got there. Its external hirings and internal promotions saw women significantly over-index.

Clemenger and Clemenger Group

Last year, Clemenger Group reported median base and total gender pay gaps of 1 per cent and 0.7 per cent.

This year, they’re both 0.1 per cent. Clemenger BBDO, however, also gets to report separately. Its median total remuneration and median base gender pay gaps sit at 16.9 and 19.6 per cent.

Publicis

Publicis’ numbers have changed a fair bit—largely because of reporting changes. Last year, its Communications and Media arms reported together 13 per cent and 12.2 per cent median base and total gender pay gaps. This year, those figures dropped to 11.2 per and 11.9 per cent.

However, the two were also required to report separately this year. Media recorded 5 per cent 3.5 per cent median base and total gaps. Communications, meanwhile, saw drops to 7.7 per cent and 9.6 per cent.

Publicis Sapient, on the other hand, reports separately again. Its base and total gaps went from 7.2 per cent and 11.3 per cent, respectively, in 2023 to 14.7 per cent in this year’s reporting.

M&C Saatchi

Ostensibly, M&C Saatchi’s numbers have gone backwards from a median base of 9.3 per cent and a median total of 9.2 per cent. This year, those numbers are 15.7 per cent and 15.6 per cent, respectively.

But WGEA reported that M&C’s staff dropped from 395 to 243. B&T understands that those numbers are some way off the real totals. We also understand that M&C has changed the composition of its workforce to include more freelance and temporary staff to meet shifting client needs—something that many agencies are also experiencing.

GroupM

GroupM’s results are worth drilling down into, too. Last year, WPP’s media arm reported median base and median total pay gap percentages of 14.7 per cent.

This year, those numbers have dropped to a median base 9.9 per cent and a median total of 9.4 per cent. Progress, right? Not so fast, these most recent set of numbers only apply to GroupM’s centralised functions such as its Nexus business and finance teams.

Instead, the agencies now report separately. EssenceMediacom has a 14.2 per cent total remuneration gender pay gap. Mindshare sits at 2.6 per cent. Wavemaker at 27 per cent. Below are the differences between the EssenceMediacom and Wavemaker workforces. Mindshare doesn’t appear on the WGEA data explorer.

BMF

BMF is another that got hit with the moving goalposts. Last year, it reported median base and total gaps of 9.6 per cent and 9.8 per cent, respectively as part of Enero. This year, its median total remuneration went from 8.5 per cent to -2.6 per cent.

“At BMF, we are committed to building a workplace where everyone has equal opportunity to thrive. Gender is an important part of that conversation, and our latest gender pay gap data reflects our ongoing focus on equity, with a median total remuneration pay gap of -2.6 per cent in favour of women, compared to the industry standard of 14.1 per cent in favour of men,” said CEO Steven McArdle.

“This commitment is reflected in our strong female leadership representation, flexible working arrangements, and investment in career development. With a workforce that is 65 per cent female, leadership programs designed to support growth, and an active focus on succession planning, we are taking deliberate steps to drive fairness and opportunity.

“While we’re proud of the progress we’ve made, we know there’s always more to do. Equity isn’t just about pay, it’s about ensuring that everyone, regardless of gender or background, has the chance to succeed. We will continue to challenge ourselves and the industry to build a more inclusive future.”

The Platforms

The major tech platforms, once the gold standard at declarations of diversity and inclusion, have undergone something of a change this year. Following Trump’s ascension to the White House, many publicly U-turned on their previous DEI commitments, abandoning diverse hiring targets and more.

Over here, the situation may play out differently on the ground—as some of the platforms have told us. It’s also worth noting that these numbers do not reflect the first three months of this year, so we’ll have to wait until 2026 to see if there are any changes in hiring, firing and promotion practices.

Meta

Meta reports under the name business name Facebook Australia—a throwback to those halcyon days before the Metaverse.

This year, as with last, its median base salary pay gap lent in favour of women. Last year, the median base salary was -1.7 per cent with the gap widening to -10.7 per cent this year.

However, things get slightly hazy when total remuneration is taken into account. In 2024, the gap was 2.6 per cent in favour of women. This year it’s 6.9 per cent in favour of men.

A Meta spokesperson told B&T: “Because we have a small number of employees in Australia, a change in a limited number of roles with people leaving or joining the business will cause variations in the per cent.”

Facebook Australia’s team comprises more women than men overall. In 2023, there were 159 people employed at the company, with that number dipping to 130 in 2024.

Just over a month ago, Meta told employees it was disbanding its global diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) team. In Australia, Meta said it was still committed to hiring a diverse workforce.

TikTok

TikTok Australia’s median base salary pay gap last year was 15.3 per cent, down just slightly to 14.8 per cent this year. On the median total remuneration pay gap, it was 19.9 per cent last year and down slightly to 16.9 per cent this year.

Men comprise two-thirds of TikTok’s workforce overall and up to 80 per cent in the upper quartile.

There were 314 people employed at the company last year and 535 this year, a significant increase. The employee pool skews towards men, who represent 67 per cent of the company.

Google

Google Australia’s median base salary last year was 3.7 per cent, down just 0.1 per cent to 3.6 per cent this year. Like TikTok, Google’s workforce is two-thirds male.

Its workforce dropped by around 200 staff and while its external hires had a 50-50 split, three-fifths of its internal promotions and hires were men.

Media owners gender pay gap data