How should professional services-based employers address their gender pay gaps?

The 2023–24 gender pay gap result, released yesterday (4 March) by the Workplace Gender Equality Agency, highlighted issues in the professional services sector.

The release of the gender pay gap statistics for the 2023–24 period has revealed that nearly three in four (72 per cent) of all Australian employers pay men more, on average, than women – with men taking home $28,425 more on average per year.

Professional services was classed as a gender-balanced industry instead of a male- or female-dominated industry. However, despite the workforce population being seemingly gender-balanced, a gender pay gap was still prevalent – as women workers were far more likely to fall into the lower pay quartile than the upper pay quartile.

Speaking to HR Leader, WGEA chief executive Mary Wooldridge explained some of the factors and barriers that affect the women workers in professional services especially.

“It’s really important to take both industries and then individual employers within those industries in their own context because while there are things that can be learnt across, everyone’s unique, and there’s no one-size-fits-all solution in relation to this,” Wooldridge said.

“Often in the professional services areas, we do have a balanced composition, so they’re roughly within the 40/40/20 composition range, but there are still many high gender pay gaps in the context of more men at senior levels that women haven’t yet reached.”

In terms of how employers within the professional services industry can address these issues that perpetuate the gender pay gap, Wooldridge noted that flexibility and gaining a mutual understanding between employers and clients is a crucial framework.

“The gender pay gap is driven despite composition, whereas other industries, of course, have massive composition issues that are the huge drivers in and of themselves, certainly for the professional services side of things,” Wooldridge said.

“One of the constant comments is that well ‘we’re responding to clients, we’re working on how clients want to work, we have no choice, they require 24/7 attention, they want their key staff to always be available on the phone, always be on call’.

“And I think breaking down that dynamic of the always-available notion for professional services firms is probably one of the biggest challenges, and some are doing it.

“Some are having explicit conversations with their clients about their teams, about how they work, about what’s productive, what they can expect, and likewise respecting the client’s staff as well, who will have similar sets of flexibility arrangements and all those sorts of things.”

Wooldridge continued by explaining the importance of breaking down the “always-on” dynamic into an aspect of the professional services industry that uplifts women, instead of hindering them.

“But being explicit to be able to reduce that expectation of always available, because that is one of the things that is an inhibitor to more women working at senior levels or people who have other caring and family responsibilities, being able to manage both working at the most senior levels and fulfilling their other commitments and responsibilities,” Wooldridge said.

“Sometimes, women are not able to work full-time, but most of the senior roles are full-time roles. We get a lot of feedback from women who say, ‘I’m working at a much lower level than I am capable of because my organisation doesn’t have a culture that supports being able to work in a way that’s flexible at the more senior level.’

“So how can jobs be redesigned to support you? Realising the full range of the population rather than just a portion of it, and [allowing] them to also manage their competing responsibilities.

“That might be job-sharing, it might be working part-time at senior levels, it might be adjustment of expectation on working hours, or whatever it might be in that individual context. So we do see the limitations on being able to work in a flexible way at the most senior levels as a big inhibitor to women being in the highest-earning group.”

Although the professional services industry had a prevalent gender pay gap, Wooldridge stressed the importance of not “blanketing” employers within the industry who are complying and in the target range with their counterparts who are failing to do so.

“In all of these industries, there are companies that are doing it. There are companies in the target range of plus-or-minus 5 per cent, so sometimes, there are blanket statements about the nature of the industry, which is not good enough because there are some within the industry who are defying those trends, working out solutions about how it can work for women and men at all levels, and actually changing the stereotypes and the dynamics that are in place,” Wooldridge said.