Architecture firms' gender pay gaps revealed

Australia's Workplace Gender Equity Agency (WGEA) published gender pay gap data for more than 5,000 private employers with 100 or more employees for 2022-23, which includes architecture and landscape architecture firms.

The data collected by the agency on individual employers is released for the first time, after reforms passed parliament in 2023.

Federal minister for women Katy Gallagher said, "The release of employer gender pay gaps marks a historic step towards transparency and accountability in addressing gender inequality."

The data indicates the national workforce composition is 51 percent women and 49 percent men, while the upper pay quartile is composed of 35 percent women and 65 percent men.

The national median total gender pay gap across the whole workforce sits at 19 percent, however 50 percent of all employers have a gender pay gap of more than 9.1 percent.

The data also found that across the nation 30 percent of employers had a median gender pay gap within the target range between -5 percent and +5 percent.

Among the architecture and landscape architecture practices that reported data to the WGEA, none were within the target range, nine had greater gender pay gaps than the national average, and all but two practices are among the 50 percent of employers with a gender pay gap of more than 9.1 percent.