Australian Workplace Gender Equality Agency gender pay gap reporting

A focus on gender pay equality

We further evolved our approach to gender pay reporting by disclosing our total remuneration^disclaimergender pay gap in Australia for the first time this year (see table below).

The overall figure represents the difference between what women and men^disclaimerearn across all roles based in Australia, complementing our historical reporting methodology, available in our ESG Data and Frameworks Pack.

We have chosen to report the difference in total remuneration rather than salary^disclaimerthis year, reaffirming our ambition to publish more transparent pay equity data and bridge the gender pay gap.

In early 2024, the Australian Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA) will be publishing private sector employer pay gaps for the first time. ANZ’s gender pay gap is 19.9%^disclaimerwhich, while still much higher than we would like, is below the average gender pay gap for the financial and insurance services industry of 28.6% and the national average of 22.8%.

Like the industry overall, ANZ has a majority female workforce (50.8%) but lower representation of women in leadership (37.3%). The key to closing the gender pay gap continues to be increasing the representation of women in senior and higher-paying roles which is why implementing our Women in Leadership Action plan is so critical.

Measuring gender pay equality

In calculating the overall gender pay gap^disclaimer, we assessed the overall differences in both average^disclaimerand median^disclaimertotal remuneration. Unlike average total remuneration which can be influenced by outliers and can skew the result, the median is a closer representation of the earnings typical of our male and female employees.

A range of factors determine the level of variable pay at ANZ, so our overall gender pay gap may fluctuate year-on-year.

We were pleased to further reduce our overall gender pay gap in Australia this year, as measured by both the average and median remuneration. We have achieved this primarily by increasing the number of women in more senior and higher paying roles.

Our overall pay equity gap^disclaimer– which compares the total remuneration of women and men in the same or similar roles – in Australia regressed marginally since last year when the pay equity gap slightly favoured women, to now slightly favouring men. Although our overall pay equity gap remains minimal, we recognise there are areas where this gap is wider and we have more work to do.

We actively monitor and review both our gender pay gap and pay equity gap, including as part of our annual Performance and Remuneration Review process and by the CEO, aiming to take positive action to adjust where necessary.

This year, ANZ Bank New Zealand publicly reported its gender pay gap for the second time (20.5%^disclaimerfavouring men in 2022). For the first time, the Māori and Pasifika pay gap – the difference between the average pay for Māori and Pasifika and for European/Pākehā – was also disclosed at 23.3%^disclaimer in 2022 favouring European/Pākehā employees.

For comparable data measuring the average salary breakdowns by job category and for women and men in the same or similar roles see our ESG Data and Frameworks pack. More information about ANZ’s remuneration report can be found in the 2023 Annual Report.

We are pleased to have increased Women in Leadership^disclaimer(WIL) to 37.3% in 2023, exceeding our target of 36.9% (an increase of 1.4 ppt since 2022). Women in revenue generating leadership roles^disclaimerimproved by 2 ppt to 32.2% this year.

In 2024 our target is to again increase WIL by 1 ppt, to 38.3%. We anticipate the changing shape of our business and increased focus on traditionally male-dominated roles may make it challenging to achieve the progress in WIL that we are seeking.

To help support the achievement of this target, this year we developed an enterprise Women in Leadership (WIL) Action Plan which has a focus on increasing the representation of WIL and ‘building the pipeline’, and includes a sustained focus on prioritised segments such as Institutional and Technology, both of which have large leadership populations – a higher proportion of which are men.

This year, we established:

• Group Executive and CEO New Zealand Antonia Watson and Group Executive Institutional Mark Whelan as executive sponsors of the plan, to champion and advocate the criticality of the WIL agenda across the organisation;
• a Business Leader Reference Group comprising senior leaders – of all genders and from across various geographies and divisions – who provide input into the WIL efforts from the perspective of both their lived experience as a business leader and the division they represent; and
• a WIL Taskforce with representatives from the prioritised segments and Talent & Culture to align WIL efforts on the initiatives that will have the greatest impact, drive momentum and provide a disciplined focus for the WIL agenda.

We also included additional gender equity questions in our My Voice engagement survey this year to better understand gender equality perceptions and the factors that can act as enablers or barriers to the achievement of gender equality in our workplace.

We developed an enterprise Sponsorship Playbook to provide guidance for groups across the bank looking to run a sponsorship program, and completed a stocktake of our people policies, processes and practices to identify opportunities for improvement. Some of the adjustments we are now making include improvements to our exit interview process and providing additional guidance for hiring managers on inclusive recruitment.

ANZ is signatory to the 40:40 Vision, an investor-led initiative which aims to achieve gender balance (40:40:20) in executive leadership teams of ASX300 companies by 2030. As at 30 September 2023, women as Key Management Personnel (KMP)^disclaimer had decreased to 30% (below the 40% target). This number included Richard Howell, who was Acting Group Executive Talent & Culture for three months during 2023. Elisa Clements was announced permanent Group Executive Talent& Culture commencing 9 October at which time women as KMP increased to 40%. Three of the four KMP roles with profit and loss accountability are held by women – our Group Executive Australia Retail Maile Carnegie, Group Executive Australia Commercial Clare Morgan, and Group Executive and CEO New Zealand Antonia Watson.

Further detail on our gender diversity targets can be found in our Corporate Governance Statement and our Diversity and Inclusion Policy. For more information about employee gender breakdowns see our ESG Data and Frameworks pack.