Gender pay gaps exposed: The best and worst Illawarra employers

Among roughly 30 large organisations based in the region included in the release, the IMB Bank has the largest gap in favour of men.

There, the median man earns 33 per cent more than the median woman across base salary and total remuneration, which includes bonuses and superannuation.

In a statement, the bank said it was committed to reducing the gender pay gap to below 30 per cent by 2027.

"We have designed a comprehensive strategy to achieve these targets and we are actively monitoring progress across our organisation."

At the other end of the spectrum, disability employers The Flagstaff Group and Greenacres Disability Services have some of the most female skewed pay scales in Australia.

However, WGEA CEO Mary Wooldridge says these organisations were outliers with a "disproportionately low" pay gap due to the unique nature of their workforce.

Search the whole list to find out your company's gender pay gap.

The data covers private employers with more than 100 employees and includes around 5000 businesses across Australia.

While companies have been reporting this data to WGEA on a confidential basis for years, this is the first time this data has been publicly released, which Ms Wooldridge said would provide transparency.

"The time for talk and excuses is over," she said.

"Change takes action and employers need to double down on ensuring all employees are fairly represented and equally valued and rewarded in their workplace."

Nationally, the gender pay gap for total median remuneration is 19 per cent.

Coming in at this figure was the Wollongong Catholic Education Diocese, with a median pay gap of 18.3 per cent in favour of men.

Tina Smith, an organiser for the union representing teachers in the Catholic sector, said employers needed to take meaningful action to support equity in pay and superannuation.

"At the beginning of the 2024 school year, women were still earning an average total remuneration of 5.9 per cent less than men across non-government schools and early childhood education," she said.

Roughly 30 per cent of employers nationally fall in the "target range" with a pay gap of less than five per cent, either in favour of men or women.

"The aspiration is to get to zero, but we respect that there are fluctuations year to year and a reasonable target range is plus or minus five," Ms Wooldridge said.

Pay gaps in the Illawarra

The Illawarra Grammar School is one of the employers right on target with a pay gap of zero per cent, which means men and women are paid equally.

The Illawarra's two unaffiliated Catholic schools, Edmund Rice and St Mary Star of the Sea also fall within the five per cent target range, both slightly favouring men.

However, ironically, the pay gap was slightly less at the boys' school than at the girls college.

BlueScope, where 24.2 per cent of the workforce is female, said the driver of the disparity between men and women was the under representation of women in specific occupational groups and more senior higher paying positions that accrue bonuses.

"In addition, a shorter average tenure of women compared to men in similar roles and greater overtime and penalty payments for men also contributed to the larger gap in total remuneration," the statement said.

Even in historically feminised workplaces, such as aged care and social assistance, men received higher salaries than their female colleagues.

For instance, the median pay gap at the Illawarra Retirement Trust, where 80.4 per cent of employees are women, was just shy of 20 per cent.

IRT CEO Patrick Reid said the organisation was committed to developing and promoting equality and diversity across the business.

"We also acknowledge and applaud the addition of new compulsory indicators for inclusion in the next reporting period which include: flexible working arrangements and support for family and caring responsibilities; consultation with employees on gender equality in the workplace; and gender composition of governing bodies."

Nicky Sloan, CEO of peak community service organisation Community Industry Group said this was partly the result of women having historically performed the bulk of unpaid care work.

"Across a range of care sectors men are generally not employed so much on the ground as care workers," she said. "We tend to see men coming into managerial positions or executive positions."

At the University of Wollongong, which has 62 per cent female staff and is headed up by a female Vice-Chancellor, the gender pay gap based on total remuneration was four per cent in favour of men, just inside the target range.

UOW chief operating officer Adam Malouf said the organisation had work to do at the senior executive level, but was in the final stages of developing a new gender equity plan.

"UOW recognises that gender equity is critical to our organisation's success, and we passionately believe that companies and communities thrive with diverse perspectives and flexibility in thinking, leading to higher levels of creativity and innovation."

And at the separate entity, UOW Pulse, which runs the university's commercial operations, the pay gap was 22.6 per cent in favour of women.

Ms Sloan said gender pay gaps exposed wider fault lines in our community, beyond the individual pay packets of workers, the gender pay gaps across employers, regions and industries.

"There are really long term implications from the gender pay gap," she said.

"When we know that the highest growing population of homeless people is women over 55, we can see the long term trajectory of women not earning as much.

"That is a disgrace."

For younger women, the loss of pay when going on maternity leave had a significant impact, particularly during a cost of living crunch, as managing director of Women Illawarra Michelle Glasgow pointed out.

"We're having to provide flexibility and reassurance that should they want to return earlier that there'll be a position for them," she said.

"The years of work and therefore super contributions compounds over time, putting women well behind by the age of retirement.

"Unless an employer tops up the woman's pay to her usual wage over this time, as it is Women Illawarra's policy to do, the pay gaps get bigger and bigger over time."

Ms Wooldridge said publishing the gender pay gaps was only the start, and it was up to employers to take action to address gender equality.

"There's no one size fits all solution in relation to this. Even those who are performing well in terms of the results have to be vigilant to maintain it, and even if there's a zero median gender pay gap doesn't mean there's no gender inequality."

- With Karen Barlow