Leah Weckert’s appointment at Coles last year – there is still a long way to go to achieve true gender equity in retail.  This was made clear with the reporting by WGEA last week, which found a 7.1 per cent median gender pay gap in retail – significantly lower than the national industry-wide median of 19 per cent but still higher than the +/- 5 per cent, which is considered neutral.  And with much higher gender pay gaps at a handful of women’s fashion companies, including City Chic, Valley Girl-owner Fast Future Brands, Brand Collective and Forever New, the findings highlight the need for further action.  To understand how different types of retailers are faring when it comes to gender equity, Inside Retail asked data analyst Marieke van Bruggen in collaboration with Mark Fletcher, head of insights at Octomedia, to slice and dice the WGEA data by size of business and retail category. Digging into the data Of the 390 retailers included in WGEA’s gender pay gap reporting (we excluded the 168 motor vehicle or motor vehicle parts retailers from our analysis), nearly half (48 per cent) were classified as ‘other’ store-based retailing, 16 per cent as food retailing, 3 per cent as fuel retailing and 3 per cent as non-store based retailing.  They were split roughly evenly across company size: 18 per cent of companies in the sample had more than 5000 employees; 26 per cent had between 1000-4999 employees; 18 per cent had between 500-999 employees; 16 per cent had between 250-499; and 22 per cent had less than 250 employees.  The data suggests that as a business’ headcount decreased, they were less likely to have an equality policy. Ninety-three per cent of businesses with over 5000 employees had an equality policy, as did 80 per cent of companies with 1000-4999 employees, 62 per cent of companies with 500-999 employees and 46 per cent for businesses with 250-499 employees. However, companies with less than 250 employees were outliers. Seventy per cent of them had an equality policy.  Similarly, the data showed that 81 per cent of businesses with over 5000 employees had conducted a payroll analysis and 82 per cent had taken action as a result of this analysis. The data showed that 59 per cent of businesses with over 5000 employees had achieved gender pay equity, the highest percentage of any size business. It’s not surprising, therefore, that 71 per cent of retailers with over 5000 employees had implemented and maintained transparent performance assessment processes. This was the highest of any size retail business; 32 per cent of businesses with between 1000-4999 employees had done so, 30 per cent of businesses with between 500-999 employees had done so, 59 per cent with between 250-499 and 39 per cent with less than 250 employees. However, when it comes to transparency regarding pay scales and bands, the biggest retailers did poorly compared to others. Only 1 per cent of retailers with more than 5000 employees had this transparency, compared to 16 per cent of businesses with less than 250 employees. Building the talent pipeline Lisa Sweeney, an experienced retailer and the founder and CEO of consultancy, networking and mentoring group Business in Heels believes it is important to have a baseline level of transparency into the gender pay gaps of major retailers.  While companies with over 100 employees have been required to report on gender equality indicators, including remuneration and workforce composition, for several years, WGEA made that information publicly available by employer name for the first time this year.  One of the key findings from the reporting on the retail sector was the fact that female representation tended to be lowest in the upper quartile of the workforce, which are the more senior, and often higher-paid, roles. “There are two critical factors – equal pay for equal work and then the overall balance [of women within the organisation],” Sweeney told Inside Retail. “It is these balances that are throwing out some very big gaps [in pay], and in these cases, the industry norms should be the comparison as the problem may be the pipeline of women into the industry.” Women account for around 17 per cent of retail CEOs in Australia and 27 per cent of directors. Whilst the 2024 WGEA gender pay gap report did not include CEO salaries, it is notable that some of the retailers with the biggest gender pay gaps were women’s fashion brands led by male CEOs. City Chic Collective led by CEO Phil Ryan had a median base salary gender pay gap of 57.7 per cent; Valleygirl-owner Fast Future Brands led by CEO Jim Marr had a gap of 52.1 per cent; and several businesses within the Brand Collective portfolio, including Black Pepper, Designworks, Review and Yarra Trail, which is led by CEO David Thomas, had a gap of 50.9 per cent. Forever New led by Dipendra Goenka had a gap of 50.1 per cent.  Inclusive hiring and training Nish Mohil, digital and e-commerce manager at Australian footwear brand Rollie, told Inside Retail that greater training and support is needed to enable women to rise through the ranks into senior leadership positions.  “The biggest room for improvement would be to train and promote more women into leadership positions. Despite our presence in the workforce, women are still underrepresented in boardrooms,” she said.  “It starts with more inclusive hiring and training [of] women in all areas including P&L to create holistic leaders. We also need to address pay disparities that still exist within the industry and find ways to support women through maternity and childcare.” Mohil and Sweeney both spoke on a panel at the inaugural #IRWD365 breakfast event in Melbourne last week, to kick off Inside Retail’s new initiative to celebrate women’s achievements in retail.  Jeanswest’s GM of retail Anne Natale and Sophia Pope, director of sales and customer success at Shipstation, also spoke on the panel, while Carly Brown, the founder of Australian swimwear brand Une Piece, and a former senior marketing manager at Revlon, Coca-Cola, Domino’s and Uber, participated in a fireside chat.  “At an organisational level, we need to ensure more diverse and inclusive hiring, training and mentorship of women to create an inclusive workplace,” Mohil continued. “We need to create a space for women to voice their concerns and opinions about their experiences and the changes they wish to see to close the gap. Having policies such as flexible work arrangements, affordable childcare and checks to address gender pay gaps are needed.”  However, to achieve this, the conversation about gender equity can’t be a one-day-only event on International Women’s Day. That’s why Inside Retail has launched #IRWD365, and why we’re inviting you to nominate a remarkable woman in retail and share the story of how she inspires you. Through this initiative, we aim to amplify the voices of those who deserve to be heard and keep the conversation about women in retail at the forefront of our minds every day, not just on one day of the year. To participate, simply click here.