Sky News Australia the only major media company in the country without a gender pay gap

New data from the Workplace Gender Equality Agency has for the first time revealed the gender pay gap of every private company in the country with more than 100 employees. While the national gap for average total remuneration sits at 21.7% according to the agency’s data, the numbers vary significantly more when looking at the Australian media sector. 

Crikey looked at the numbers for major Australian media publications to see where each employer fell on gender equality in the workplace by a number of key measures (although the data provided by the WGEA is significantly more comprehensive and looks at whether employers had provisions and plans in place for gender equality, domestic violence responses, and maternity leave, among other factors).

The data, which is for the 2022/23 financial year, will be more comprehensive in 2023/24, with public companies included in the data. As such, Crikey’s analysis largely excludes the ABC and SBS, which publish their own, slightly less detailed gender equality statistics. The limited information included in the above graph comes from the broadcasters’ most recent diversity reports.

Sky News Australia is the only major Australian media company to have no negative gender pay gap, with women earning 1.1% more than men at Macquarie Park based on total remuneration. 

Seven West Media had the biggest gender pay disparity at 13.8%, but Guardian Australia had the worst representation for women in the lowest pay quartile at 72%.

While not a single major media company had an equal share of women in their top pay quartile, Sky News Australia joins News Corp as the only companies with at least 50% in the second-highest quartile. 

Despite its pay statistics, Sky News Australia had by some margin the lowest percentage of women in management positions at 24%. 

Guardian Australia had the most women represented as a share of total employees at 58%, while newswire service Australian Associated Press (AAP) had the lowest share at 40%. 

While Private Media, publisher of Crikey, was not captured by the WGEA as the company has fewer than 100 employees, the company said it has an 11.8% pay gap, with that shifting significantly for this masthead. At Crikey, women are paid 25.6% more than men and comprise 66% of management positions.

Last week, the Australian Bureau of Statistics reported that the gender pay gap was at a record low 15%, with an analysis that also accounted for the public sector.

Clarification: An earlier version of this article did not include Guardian Australia, which was also represented in the recently released WGEA figures. It has been updated to include Guardian Australia’s, as well as Private Media’s, pay quartile figures.