The smaller the organisation, the smaller your pay packet… if you’re a woman
11 April 2019 at 8:00 am
Women working in smaller not-for-profit organisations are worse off financially, making just 90 cents on every dollar a man earns, data from Pro Bono Australia’s 2019 Salary Survey has found.
The figures, identified by looking at Tier 2 roles which directly report to the CEO, found the gender pay gap varied by organisational size.
While women working in organisations with a turnover under $2 million earned less than men, the gap levelled out for organisations with a turnover of between $2 million and $10 million. For organisations with a turnover of $10 million and over, women started to earn more as the size of the organisation grew.
But the data also found that the number of women in Tier 2 roles decreased with organisational size, with women making up 80 per cent of the roles in organisations with a turnover under $2 million, compared to 66 per cent in organisations with a turnover over $50 million.
Kate Lee, Workplace Gender Equality Agency engagement executive manager, told Pro Bono News the survey’s findings demonstrated the importance of collecting data to give the sector an idea of what was going on, but that collecting data was not enough on its own.
“Pay gaps only close if organisations analyse this data and their leaders see the numbers,” Lee said.
“Do a pay gap audit. Take action on the findings. Report your results to the executive and board. Keep monitoring your progress.”
Out of the 1,421 not for profit leaders and employees surveyed, 75 per cent of the respondents were female.
The survey uncovered that money wasn’t the only gap between male and female not for profit workers.
Nearly half of all women said they often experienced negative work-related stress, compared to just 36 per cent of men, who were asked the same question.
Women also reported they felt there was less opportunity to grow in their role and were less likely than men to recommend the organisation to others.
Andrew Beveridge from Leadership Today said the findings on gender really reinforced the importance of providing equitable and competitive salaries for all genders.
He said further exploration was needed on the factors getting in the way of more women taking up senior roles in larger not-for-profit organisations.
“Getting these basics right lays the foundation to work on other aspects of the work environment,” Beveridge said.
To see these figures in more detail, and other salary benchmarking data for key roles in the sector, go to the full report here.
