There’s a gender pay gap, can I ask for an increase?

You’ve discovered today your company pays men more. Now you can demand an increase, right? Not so fast.

Ready to tell the boss you're ready for a raise? Not so fast. Collage: Emilia Tortorella

So, you’ve checked the gender pay gap list and discovered your company has a gap of 40 per cent in favour of men when it comes to remuneration.

It’s a shock: you knew some male colleagues take home more than you, but you figured the differential was marginal. All this data from the Workplace Gender Equality Agency changes the game, right? Now you can march into the boss and demand a raise, right?

Not so fast.

The WGEA list is a revolution in transparency: for the first time we have salary data from almost 5000 Australian companies, not-for-profits, universities and schools.

It’s the sort of data that will encourage many to dream of a pay rise. They’re not entirely wrong: the list will certainly help gender equality because it will spur companies into figuring out how to get more women into senior jobs. But before you get too excited about asking for a salary increase, it’s important to know the limits to the tsunami of information now available on the WGEA website.

It’s not about equal pay

There may be a pay gap but it’s not evidence you are earning less than male colleagues doing the same work. The figures released on Tuesday simply show median pay, that is they compare the pay of the man who earns the median in a company with the pay of the woman who earns the median. All it shows is that when all salaries are considered, the median for men is higher than the median for women. It’s not an average, and it’s not a role on role comparison. (It’s important to note that 8 per cent of companies in the list actually favour women.)

Or as Qantas Group chief people officer Catherine Walsh says, the pay gap in her company “does not mean women are paid less than men to do the same jobs… but shows there is a significant underrepresentation of women in highly paid roles like pilots and engineers across airlines globally.”

Can I still ask for a pay rise?

No harm in asking: the Zeitgeist is positive for women right now, thanks in part to the publication and noise around the list. But the gap may not be your best lever.

Instead take a look at rules legislated last year that mean you can ask a colleague how much they earn and they can legally tell you. Odd as it may seem, many companies previously claimed salaries were private and you couldn’t reveal yours to others. Some had bans written into employment contracts. That’s all gone now; your colleague may decline to reveal his or her pay but it’s a “you show me yours, and I’ll show you mine” sort of world now as so much of the secrecy around pay disappears. So get proactive and if you’re earning less than the person sitting next to you, it’s time for a heart-to-heart with the boss.

The CEO of the Australian HR Institute, Sarah McCan-Bartlett, says the banning of pay secrecy clauses is probably more valuable for employees in the short term than the WGEA days because it allows discussions on an individual basis for people who potentially are doing the same job.

So, what if I am earning less than someone doing the same job?

That’s illegal if you are doing the same work, but there is nuance about experience and the range of tasks even within similar roles. Any differential should be based on performance, not gender, so when you challenge the boss about your personal salary gap, be armed with a record of your achievements and be ready to prove your value.

Nicole Gorton, a director at recruiters, Robert Half Australia, says employees should push for visibility, transparency and communication from their companies about pay and promotion and performance reviews. But don’t get stuck on remuneration, she says. Start asking for other benefits such as health insurance, flexible hours, fees paid for education and training and that plethora of wellness and leisure programs now offered by some companies.

Should I talk about the gender gap in a salary discussion?

Sure, but be savvy and show you know what it means. The discussion you really need is about your career and future, not necessarily about a pay rise for the same job – although that would be sweet. What you want is to move into the male-dominated roles in your company, which are the ones that are higher paid and which are causing that imbalance in pay between men and women. Ask your manager why men dominate and interrogate policies about recruitment and retention of women. Know that the WGEA list does not have granular detail about salaries and that its real value is about benchmarking and forcing strategic and structural change inside your company. McCann-Bartlett says employees (and employers) need to start asking questions such as: are we male-dominated in more senior roles? Is there a group of roles that have a higher pay structure where we’re getting a high rate of drop out of females? How do we actually change the culture in our organisation, the way we recruit, the way we support our employees?” 

What can I do to change my career trajectory within my company if there is gender bias?

For a start, get interested in the data from the WGEA – not just this latest list, but a stack of analysis and material on the agency’s website. Take an interest in material from groups like Chief Executive Women and Champions of Change Coalition. You might get further by interrogating the boss about structural and cultural change – for example, the talent pipeline – than demanding a pay rise off the bat. McCann-Bartlett urges employees to check the explanatory statements that 500 companies lodged with the WGEA and which are available on its website. Look at what your employer says about the gap and what it’s doing to close it. You could also push your company to hold meetings to explain the pay criteria. McCann-Bartlett says there are a lot of things employees can do on an individual basis but they won’t be driven by the idea that “I’m underpaid and I would like a pay increase”.

It’s more about understanding how your organisation sets remuneration and benchmarking your role with any published data either internally or across sectors. Check out online recruitment sites for pay ranges for similar roles to your own.

Gorton says you need to be armed with information so “nothing really comes as a surprise” during a remuneration discussion. It’s about knowing “where do I sit today and what do I need to do to get to the next level, who’s my peer group, what do I need to do to join that next peer group level?”

Is the WGEA list just a conversation starter, then?

It’s much more than that, according to McCann-Bartlett: “Data in the UK (where there has been similar reporting since 2017) shows that when gender pay gap reporting came in, the gender pay gap started to reduce. (The WGEA list means) there will be annual benchmarking to see how things have changed for individual organisations. Companies will be looking at ways of putting in changes in their organisations around policies, procedures, and long term strategic goals.”