Big four making big dents in Australia’s gender pay gap

Pay parity within some of Australia’s biggest consulting firms will be secured sooner than most professional services according to the first report into the gender pay gap in the private sector.

Pay parity within some of Australia’s biggest consulting firms will be secured sooner than in most professional services, according to the first report into the gender pay gap in the private sector. 

Australia’s big four consultancy firms, including Deloitte and KPMG, have smaller gender pay gaps than others, with PwC cited as one of the best on the list of more than 5000 businesses included in the government-funded study of pay scales of companies with more than 100 employees.

Of the major technical service providers in Australia, PwC ­recorded the smallest gap ­between the pay packages of its male and female employees, with the median total remuneration pay gap coming in at 3.9 per cent and a median base salary difference of 4 per cent.

KPMG has a 12.9 per cent difference in the median base salaries of men and women and a 13.7 per cent variation when it comes to total median remuneration. EY had a small gap between the two metrics of base and total pay packages, while Deloitte was level with a 16.7 per cent difference between the median base and total median remuneration of its male and female employees.

Other global organisations, ­including McKinsey, which operates its local arm as McKinsey ­Pacific Rim, had one of the largest gender pay gaps at 38.3 per cent (33.4 per cent median base ­salary).

Boston Consulting Group’s ­results showed the biggest difference between the median base salaries (13.2 per cent) and total remuneration (6.3 per cent), which shows the US global management firm has more Australian women in lower paid positions than men.

Workplace Gender Equality Agency chief executive Mary Wooldridge said the report was a significant step in understanding where Australian businesses are at when it comes to gender ­equality.

While consultancy firms have been publishing their own pay gap data for a number of years, and regularly credit a commitment to transparency for pushing the sector toward financial equality, equity partners of these firms, and their salaries and perks such as bonuses, are not included in the WGEA’s inaugural report.

It was a recommendation of the review into the Workplace Gender Equality Act that commenced in 2021 under the ­Coalition government that equity partners benefits should be included in the final report, however that element was not adopted when fresh legislation passed last year.

“The recommendation from our review of the act suggested firm and equity partners should be included. That is something we are working on and are hoping to include in the next stage of ­reform,” Ms Wooldrigde said.