Westpac's gender pay gap is 30.3 per cent, says chief executive

Tuesday, 17 September 2019

In 2019, Westpac published its own gender pay gap figures to prompt conversation. Since this video was made, Westpac's gender pay gap has dropped from 30.3 per cent in 2019 to 29.1 per cent in 2020.

Westpac has revealed its gender pay gap is just over 30 per cent, much higher than the national average.

The bank published its data in a bid to put the spotlight on women's place in the workforce.

While Westpac was close to achieving 'pay parity' with women paid the same as men in equivalent roles, it had a gender pay gap because women were over-represented in lower-paid service-level roles, such as in contact centres and branches.

Westpac New Zealand chief executive David McLean encouraged other businesses to follow Westpac's example and publish their gender diversity figures.

Westpac NZ chief executive David McLean, who has two grown-up daughters and no sons, said the bank had been successful in increasing the proportion of leadership roles held by women, but there were still higher-paid roles in areas like technology and trading which remained heavily dominated by men.

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The national gender pay gap, based on median hourly earnings for men and women, was 9.2 per cent, though Westpac said if it used the same methodology as Statistics NZ, and did not include pay elements like bonuses, overtime and super contributions, it's pay gap would be be understated at 27.7 per cent.

The bank's analysis showed women held 62 per cent of all jobs at Westpac, and 51 per cent of leadership roles, but only 36 per cent of the highest paid roles.

'While we are paying men and women equally for the work they do, and across each layer of the organisation, women and men are unevenly spread across our company, with more men working in higher paid areas and women dominating lower paid parts of the bank,' McLean said.

'I was startled by this figure. In large part it reflects a long term structural issue relating to the types of roles that were traditionally filled by men and women, which still persists within our organisation today.'

McLean acknowledged some of the work areas in which women predominated were at risk from automation rendering them obsolete.

'Businesses in some other countries have to disclose this sort of information by law,' McLean said.

'We want to get the ball rolling in New Zealand by providing the data voluntarily. We know making these figures public will open us up to scrutiny.'

McLean did not favour New Zealand creating a similar law here, preferring voluntary buy-in from employers.

The bank would publish an annual gender pay gap report, and would aim to increase the proportion of its top three tiers of management who were women to 50 per cent by September 2025.

He said that could be done by removing hiring biases, and ensuring recruitment agencies worked hard to find women qualified to be shortlisted each time a role needed filling, rather than having to resort to positive discrimination.

The national profile of women's pay and opportunities has got higher profile under the current Government, with Minister for Women Julie Anne Genter pledging that by the end of 2020 all government agencies would have closed gender pay gaps within the same roles.

By the end of this year women would hold at least half of leadership roles in the top three tiers of leadership in government agencies, she said.