Last week, the Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA) published base salary and total remuneration median gender pay gaps for private sector employers in Australia with 100 or more employees.
All this salary data comes directly from employers as part of WGEA’s annual Employer Census. Under the Workplace Gender Equality Act 2012, all Australian employers with 100 or more employees must report their gender equality data to WGEA annually.
Australia’s total remuneration average gender pay gap in 2023 is 21.7%. For every $1 on average a man makes, women earn 78c. Over the course of a year, that difference adds up to $26,393. The 21.7% gender pay gap includes base salary, overtime, bonuses and additional payments. It also includes the annualised full time equivalent salaries of casual and part time workers.
WGEA also calculates a median gender pay gap and this currently stands at 19%. A ‘median’ is the middle of a set of numbers. A median gender pay gap is found by lining up the pay of every man in a business in order of smallest to largest and finding the middle number in that dataset. The same is done for the pay of women in that business. A median employer gender pay gap is the difference between the median of what a man is paid and the median of what a woman is paid within the organisation. Unlike the average, the median is not skewed by extreme values (CEO remuneration, for example), giving us a picture of typical earnings that exist within an organisation.
The results show that 30% of employers have a median gender pay gap between the target range of -5% and +5%. While almost two thirds (62%) of median employer gender pay gaps are over 5% and in favour of men and across all employers 50% have a gender pay gap of over 9.1%. The rest (8%) are less than -5% and in favour of women.
Driven Women Magazine undertook an analysis of the gender pay gap data for car companies in Australia who reported to WGEA for 2023. Other car companies who have less than 100 employees are not required to report and have not been looked at as part of this analysis.
Volvo Group Australia Pty Ltd, which manufactures trucks and buses, reported the best median gender pay gap of -2.8%, which means their gap is actually in favour of women despite the fact that they only make up 16% of Volvo Group’s employees. The best median remuneration gender pay gap was recorded by Honda Australia Pty Ltd at -2.1%, again meaning it is in favour of women, who make up 36% of Honda Australia’s workface.
Another top performer was Inchcape Australia Ltd who employ over 1,400 team members across Australia and New Zealand, 28% of whom are women. The Inchcape group consists of Subaru Australia, Peugeot Australia, and Citroën Australia among a number of other Australian and New Zealand automotive companies. Inchcape reported a median salary gender pay gap of -1.2% and a median total remuneration gender pay gap of 6.2%.
“Inchcape has a robust annual performance assessment process and defined pay bands that inform remuneration decisions. Our Fair Reward Principles and Practices ensure that our reward systems are equitable, competitive, and sustainable, and we are introducing further inclusion checks during our annual performance and reward cycle to measure the effectiveness of our actions to continue to close the pay gap.
This is all part of Inchcape Australia’s commitment to being a Responsible Business, through our Driving What Matters plan, and creating an inclusive culture where the true value of diversity can be recognised. In line with these commitments, our practices help ensure Inchcape is an inclusive and rewarding place to work, enabling us to recruit, engage and retain the best talent. As a global business, we’re proud to have specific development programs for our female colleagues, including Women into Leadership and a program currently in development to support female talent across all levels, as well as comprehensive inclusion and diversity training programs for all employees,” shared an Inchcape Australia Spokesperson with Driven Women Magazine.
FCA Australia Pty Ltd is the Stellantis subsidiary in Australia and operates here as the distributor of Chrysler, Jeep, Dodge, Abarth, Alfa Romeo and Fiat vehicles. FCA reported some impressive figures as well with a 0.0% median salary gender pay gap and a 1.0% median remuneration gender pay gap. It’s not surprising then to see that FCA have the best resignation rate of women at just 10%.
Toyota are the top selling brand in Australia and they fall within the 50% of companies who have a median gender pay gap of less than 9.1%, with their reported figure being 7.8%. Toyota Motor Corporation Australia Ltd reported their median total remuneration gender pay gap at 7.3% and 30% of their employees are women.
“Toyota Australia is committed to fostering gender equality and has a range of actions and programs in place to better attract, retain and promote female talent to help us achieve our gender balance ambitions. Our 2025 Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Belonging (DEIB) strategy is designed to achieve that.
While we are pleased to report a result of 7.3%, against an industry median of 15.6%, there is still more work to be done and closing the gender pay gap remains a fundamental value of our organisation,” a Toyota Spokesperson told Driven Women Magazine.
One car company who reported a figure above the industry median was Mazda Australia Pty Ltd with a 17.3% gap in the median base salary and a 16.2% gap for the median total remuneration between genders. On this result a Mazda Australia Spokesperson said,
“Mazda Australia employs our external consultants, Mercer, to formally rate each position description within Mazda and provide relevant external salary benchmarks. As salary is therefore determined on the basis of job role, we are positioned to address remuneration fairly regardless of gender.
We are working to close any pay gaps and we are continuously striving for ways to make the automotive industry – and Mazda in particular – more attractive to women, but just as importantly, we encourage a people-first culture of diversity and inclusion.”
At the other end of the gender pay gap divide was Kia Australia Pty Ltd who had the highest of any median total remuneration gender pay gap at 36.1%. While their median salary gender pay gap was the second highest at 27.1%. Looking closer at Kia’s gender split by occupation there are no women present at the Senior Manager, Executive & General Managers, Key Management Personnel or CEO level and only 6% of promotions within the company are given to women.
Isuzu Ute Australia Pty Ltd had the highest median total remuneration gender pay gap at 35.6% and the second highest median salary gender pay gap at 34.3%. Isuzu also had the second highest resignation rate of women of 71%, just behind Mitsubishi at 72%.
In a Statement provided to WGEA Reiko Sato, Deputy Managing Director said,
“At Isuzu UTE Australia (IUA) our ambition is to build a diverse and inclusive workplace that fosters an environment where our people can thrive authentically and deliver their best performance. This not only enhances our ability to serve our customers effectively but contributes to the overall success of our business and most importantly mirrors the diverse community we serve.
IUA’s gender pay gap is influenced by the lower proportion of females in senior leadership positions and a higher proportion in our lower paid roles. Knowing this, we are actively working towards addressing this imbalance. We recognise this could take time due to the diverse challenges of our industry and organisation. We do however realise that an organisation committed to equality must continually evolve and address disparities, such as gender and ethnicity pay gaps, if they want to create a fair and inclusive workplace.
I am confident that we have the right strategy in place to build a workplace where everyone feels valued, respected, and empowered to succeed, regardless of gender, ethnicity, or background.”
Below is a summary of some of the data that has been collected by WGEA in 2023 for the largest car companies in Australia. Does knowing this information make you feel any different about which car company that you would purchase from?
| Company | % of Median Salary | % of Median Remuneration | % Women in Workforce | % Women Appointments | % Women Promotions | % Women Resignations |
| Volvo Group | -2.9 | 4.2 | 16 | 22 | 13 | 21 |
| Inchcape | -1.2 | 6.2 | 28 | 28 | 30 | 26 |
| Ford | -0.1 | 3.4 | 16 | 18 | 28 | 19 |
| FCA | 0 | 1 | 29 | 24 | 50 | 10 |
| Tesla | 2.6 | 5.2 | 19 | 19 | 17 | 38 |
| Porsche | 2.7 | 4.8 | 23 | 31 | 50 | 23 |
| Honda | 5.1 | -2.1 | 36 | 35 | 60 | 38 |
| Toyota | 7.8 | 7.3 | 30 | 39 | 31 | 36 |
| Mercedes-Benz | 9.5 | 9.5 | 41 | 42 | 54 | 33 |
| Volkswagen Group | 14.2 | 13.1 | 30 | 37 | 18 | 26 |
| Mazda | 17.3 | 16.2 | 29 | 41 | 30 | 36 |
| Mitsubishi | 17.4 | 23.2 | 29 | 29 | 33 | 72 |
| Nissan | 18.9 | 28.4 | 29 | 50 | 25 | 33 |
| Hyundai | 22.5 | 22.5 | 32 | 38 | 52 | 29 |
| Kia | 27.1 | 36.1 | 19 | 48 | 6 | 29 |
| Isuzu | 34.3 | 35.6 | 32 | 45 | 24 | 71 |
If you want to explore the data in even more depth then head to the WGEA Data Explorer and click on ‘Employer Results.’
Photographs by Driven Women Magazine.