2024 reporting period
For the 2024 WGEA reporting period, Austrade had a gender pay gap for its Australian employees of 9.1%.
This is primarily driven by a lower representation of women in senior roles and a higher representation of women in lower paid, non-management category roles. This reflects the broader workforce composition across the APS where an over-representation of women in lower APS pay bands/quartiles is contributing to more gender inequality across the APS.
Employees are engaged under common conditions with transparent pay scales/banding with roles filled via an open merit-based process in the APS. Austrade has close to equal female and male representation in its Senior Executive and Executive level positions, however more women than men in lower classified positions leading to a gender remuneration gap.
One of Austrade’s key Diversity & Inclusion objectives is to achieve equal representation of women and men in leadership positions. At the end of 2024 we had SES representation at 48% female and 52% male.
Effective strategies
We have seen a steady improvement in our gender pay gap over the past two years and remain committed to addressing the drivers of the gender pay gap and implementing effective strategies to further close it. We are working on this in several ways:
- Efforts to close the gap are focused on increasing representation of women in senior and leadership positions to 50% and an overall workforce target of equal gender split 50/50.
- Our Austrade Gender Equality Network (AGEN) is a key group of passionate employees that aims to improve gender balance through education and awareness initiatives as well as targeted support for gender-based issues.
- Looking forward into 2025 and 2026 AGEN are adding a focus on the retention of female talent within our agency including introducing a Women in Diplomacy Circle, offering menstrual products in our offices and considering new talent development offerings.
- In 2023 Austrade received endorsement from WORK180 as an employer of choice for all women. This endorsement is a globally recognised sign of a great workplace for women, which considers a business’s stance on pay equity, flexible working, paid parental leave, equal opportunities and a range of other important criteria. AGEN is continuing to work on implementing key recommendations from WORK180.
- Ensuring our policies and procedures are consistent and equitable across the Agency, for all staff, to maximise employee engagement. For example, naming menopause and menstruation symptoms as a reasonable basis for accessing sick leave entitlements.
- Providing support for parents and carers, regardless of gender, including many flexible ways of working like remote work, adjustable start and finish times, compressed/part-time hours and/or job-sharing as well as generous parental leave entitlements and non-leave based support.
- Austrade is currently working towards removing the primary and secondary carer differentiation for Australia-based employees and from March 2027, where all employees will have access to 18 weeks of paid parental leave, which can be used flexibly within the 2 years from date of birth or placement of the child.
On our key Leadership training offerings is our Women in Leader’s Program which is designed to build and retain a strong pipeline of women progressing from APS to EL and SES roles. In 2024, 31 women successfully completed the program equipping them with the skills and confidence to advance their careers.
More information
Contact us
Email: diversity@austrade.gov.au