Gold stars for employers heading in the right direction on pay

Some companies are doing the right thing in trying to close the gap on the pay scales for women and men.

Some companies are doing well in reducing the pay gap for women. Picture: iStock

There are some star performers among the almost 5000 companies in the inaugural gender pay gap list, reflecting the huge gender-equity efforts across many sectors.

The WGEA says any employer reporting a differential between minus 5 per cent to plus 5 per cent, is doing the right thing by staff; about 30 per cent of the companies are within that range. Among those reporting between 5-10 per cent are Coles, which has a base salary gap of 6 per cent and a remuneration gap of 5.6 per cent. Woolworths has 5.7 per cent for both.

Harris Farm Markets reports 5.7 per cent for both salary and remuneration. Others heading into the target range include Puma Australia, with 6.6 per cent base salary gap and 3.5 per cent remuneration gap; Challenger Ltd (6.3 per cent and 9.3 per cent), Microsoft (6.4 per cent and 9.7 per cent), Boeing Defence (6.8 per cent and 7.7 per cent), Australian Super (7.1 per cent and 8 per cent); Ikea (5.7 per cent and 6.1 per cent) and Fujitsu Australia (5.3 per cent and 5.7 per cent) and Newcrest Mining (7.8 per cent and 8.1 per cent.

HELEN TRINCA