Statement | WGEA Gender Pay Gap (2023 / 2024 reporting period)

At Gadens, we are committed to pay equity, ensuring that our people receive equal pay for comparable roles, regardless of gender. We are confident that we have pay equity at Gadens. In saying that, it is important to note that pay equity and the Gender Pay Gap (GPG) are different.

Pay equity is about paying each person the same for comparable roles, regardless of their gender (assuming equal performance). The GPG is the difference between the average (or median) earnings of men and women, expressed as a percentage.

An organisation’s GPG is influenced by factors such as workforce composition, leadership representation and gender distribution in certain roles. As result, unless these factors are aligned between genders across an organisation, a business can have a GPG despite having pay parity.

Our GPG summary

The Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA) now requires organisations to report gender pay gap data at the employing entity level rather than as a consolidated organisation. This change provides clearer and more detailed data across different parts of an organisation. At Gadens, we welcome this shift as it allows us to better identify and address any disparities across our business structure. As such, this year we are including figures of all our employing entities for the 2023-2024 reporting period.

Gadens Lawyers – Melbourne / Sydney*

*Includes lawyer remuneration, excludes partner remuneration

Eltav Investments (the service company of Gadens Lawyers) – Melbourne / Sydney*

*Includes CEO, Head of Business and support staff remuneration

The Trustee For The Gadens Service Trust – Brisbane / Adelaide*

*Includes lawyer, support staff, CEO and Head of Business remuneration, excludes partner remuneration

In our commitment to ensure we are taking positive steps towards closing the gender pay gap, we have provided our own further analysis regarding what a combined GPG would look like if we consolidated all three employing entities. We have confidence that we pay our people equitably and acknowledge there is more to do in addressing the GPG.

Gadens national*

*This GPG data has been consolidated by Gadens, using the remuneration data for each entity, providing a holistic view of the firm’s GPG. 

Our actions and strategies

We are reporting through a period of transition, both in terms of WGEA reporting changes and internally as an organisation. Despite the significant change during this time, one thing remains constant; that people are at the centre of everything we do.

Sustainable growth with fair and equitable opportunities

As part of our growth strategy, Gadens (Brisbane and Adelaide) and Gadens (Melbourne and Sydney) merged during the reporting period.

As we integrate our teams, we are proactively assessing the combined workforce to ensure alignment with our gender pay equity principles, maintaining transparency, upholding pay fairness, and creating equal opportunities for our people in our newly unified organisation.

Increasing women in leadership positions

The strategy that will have the biggest impact on our overall GPG is elevating more women into senior leadership roles, which is a key focus of the firm.

Currently, women comprise:

• 38% of our Partnership (an increase from 25% in 2018)
• 43% of our Executive team (an increase from 33% in 2021)

Gender-neutral parental leave

In a move to offer universally available paid parental leave, which most often benefits women and enables them to rejoin and stay in the workplace, we launched our market leading, gender-neutral Parental Leave Policy launched in 2022.

We offer 30 weeks’ paid leave with flexible options and we have removed the distinction between primary and secondary carers. In efforts to address the impact on women’s superannuation and earning capacity, we started paying superannuation during paid and unpaid leave up to 52 weeks based on the person’s full-time equivalent, even for part-time staff.

Flexible working

Flexible arrangements such as remote work, flexible hours, and part-time options empower our people to effectively manage both professional and personal obligations, regardless of gender.  This ensures women stay in the workplace and profession longer.

Diversity

Diversity and Inclusion is an integral part of our vision and strategy and plays a key role in shaping leadership representation, which in turn influences our GPG. We believe in creating an environment where all our people feel empowered, respected and appreciated for their skills and dedication.

We also acknowledge that the GPG calculation does not yet include data about non-binary employees, and welcome that WGEA and specialist organisations are working to develop an approach to support employers to collect this information in a way that is safe and respectful to people who identify as non-binary.