Women’s Leadership a key factor as Roy Morgan aces the first Workplace Gender Equality Agency ‘gender pay gap’ test
Roy Morgan has aced the Workplace Gender Equality Agency’s (WGEA) first ‘gender pay gap’ test with a ‘median total remuneration gender pay gap’ of 0.0% in 2022-23 compared to the industry comparison group average of 29.3% - an outperformance of 29.3% points in favour of Roy Morgan.
The ‘median base salary gender pay gap’ is also at 0.0% compared to an industry average of 27.3%.
Source: Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA) Reporting Industry Benchmark Report. Page 2.
Even more impressively, Roy Morgan’s ‘gender pay gap’ has remained at 0.0% for a third consecutive year both for median total remuneration and median base salary.
Source: Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA) Reporting Industry Executive Summary. Page 3. Note: Shaded numbers represent the ‘gender pay gaps’ (GPGs) that will be published in early 2024.
Women’s Leadership at Roy Morgan is a key factor in the company’s success and supporting and empowering women into leadership is a priority
The Workplace Gender Equality Agency's research with Bankwest Curtain Economic Centre (BCEC) has shown that greater gender diversity in leadership delivers better company performance, productivity and profitability. Further, increasing the representation of women in executive leadership roles is associated with declining organisational gender pay gaps.
Roy Morgan understands the immense value women bring to a company in leadership roles and strives to bring talented women into the company and on pathways to managerial and executive leadership roles.
This policy is succeeding and in 2022-23 Roy Morgan has an even spread of managers by gender with nine women and nine men filling these 18 managerial roles – a 50:50 split.
Roy Morgan’s board also outperforms the industry comparison when it comes to representation of women. Women comprise a clear majority of 67% of Roy Morgan’s board – more than double the average of our industry peers at only 32%.
Source: Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA) Reporting Industry Benchmark Report. Page 5.
Women’s Leadership at Roy Morgan is properly valued and financially rewarded
The latest figures on Roy Morgan’s ‘gender pay gaps’ for managerial roles for 2022-23 show that women in ‘key management positions’ are paid an average of 18.5% more than men in these positions.
This figure represents a substantial improvement from 2020-21 when men in these roles were paid an average of 15.1% more than women – an improvement of 33.6% points in favour of women in only two years.
This compares to an industry comparison ‘gender pay gap’ of 13.8% in favour of men in 2022-23.
Roy Morgan’s gender pay gaps for ‘all managers’, ‘senior managers’, ‘other managers’ and ‘overall non-managers’ are all far lower than the industry averages for these groups.
Women comprise 57% of Roy Morgan’s workforce and 55% of the upper quartile by pay
Roy Morgan is a company that hires and promotes women into leadership roles and this is reflected in the composition of our workforce.
Women form a majority of 57% of Roy Morgan’s workforce of well over 1,000 employees, and importantly, women comprise a clear majority of 55% of the hundreds of employees included in our upper quartile by pay.
Source: Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA) Reporting Industry Executive Summary. Page 3.
Roy Morgan CEO Michele Levine credits the many talented women at Roy Morgan for driving low and negligible gender pay gaps across the organisation which comprises well over 1,000 employees:
“The Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA) is due to publish the gender pay gaps of thousands of Australian companies and organisations with at least 100 employees tomorrow – and as CEO of Roy Morgan I am proud to announce our ‘median total remuneration gender pay gap’ for 2022-23 will be reported as 0% – for the third straight year.
“Women’s Leadership in recent years has formed an increasingly important factor that sets Roy Morgan apart from our competition and this fact is laid bare by the industry comparison figures that show that while our ‘gender pay gap’ is 0%, the median of our industry peers is far too high at 29.3%.
“I would like to pay special tribute to Portia Morgan, Head of Client Services, who recently led Roy Morgan’s successful pitch to win the important contract with Austrade to provide world best modelling and big data integration to measure Australia’s domestic tourism market – worth in excess of $160 billion – learn more about Roy Morgan’s three-year contract with Austrade here: Roy Morgan wins three-year contract to deliver domestic tourism statistics for Austrade.
“Special praise is also due to Athina Katiforis, Head of the Research Institute, Roslyn Orchard, Executive General Manager – Data & Operations (EMBA), Laura Demasi, General Manager of Retail, Social and Consumer Trends and Tanya Bateman, Head of Human Resources, for their hard-work and leadership in driving Roy Morgan forward as a company that thousands of people apply to work at each and every year.
“A Harvard Business Review study published in December 2020 by Jack Zenger and Joseph Folkman [1] showed that on 19 Key Leadership competencies that women outscored men on 18/19 compared to only one for which men were rated higher – but the difference for that competency was not statistically significant. A similar study conducted a year earlier found women outscoring men on 17/19 key leadership competencies.
“The findings of this study are no surprise to anyone at Roy Morgan and the value we derive from the hard-working and talented women throughout the business is properly rewarded as women are supported and promoted into leadership roles.
“The WGEA Executive Summary provided to Roy Morgan for 2022-23 shows that women considered to be ‘key management personnel’ are paid an average of 18.5% more than men in these comparable roles – an improvement of 33.6% points in only two years. In comparison, our industry peers pay men an average of 13.8% more than women for those considered to be ‘key management personnel.’
“Looking forward Roy Morgan will continue to prioritise gender diversity in leadership and ensuring women working at our business are properly remunerated, rewarded and provided with leadership pathways to follow and take as opportunities arise and their talents deserve.
“Achieving a gender pay gap of 0% for a third straight year provides a solid base for Roy Morgan to build upon as we move forward.”
For comments or more information please contact:
Michele Levine
CEO, Roy Morgan
Office: +61 (3) 9224 5215
Mobile: 0411 129 093
To learn more about Roy Morgan’s focus on gender diversity in leadership and providing a welcoming and supportive environment to employees of all backgrounds please call (+61) (3) 9224 5309 or email askroymorgan@roymorgan.com.
About Roy Morgan
Roy Morgan is Australia’s largest independent Australian research company, with offices in each state, as well as in the U.S. and U.K. A full-service research organisation, Roy Morgan has over 80 years’ experience collecting objective, independent information on consumers.
[1] Reference: Harvard Business Review: Research: Women Are Better Leaders During a Crisis by Jack Zenger and Joseph Folkman on December 30, 2020. https://hbr.org/2020/12/research-women-are-better-leaders-during-a-crisis.
Margin of Error
The margin of error to be allowed for in any estimate depends mainly on the number of interviews on which it is based. Margin of error gives indications of the likely range within which estimates would be 95% likely to fall, expressed as the number of percentage points above or below the actual estimate. Allowance for design effects (such as stratification and weighting) should be made as appropriate.
| Sample Size | Percentage Estimate |
| 40% – 60% | 25% or 75% | 10% or 90% | 5% or 95% | |
| 1,000 | ±3.0 | ±2.7 | ±1.9 | ±1.3 |
| 5,000 | ±1.4 | ±1.2 | ±0.8 | ±0.6 |
| 7,500 | ±1.1 | ±1.0 | ±0.7 | ±0.5 |
| 10,000 | ±1.0 | ±0.9 | ±0.6 | ±0.4 |
| 20,000 | ±0.7 | ±0.6 | ±0.4 | ±0.3 |
| 50,000 | ±0.4 | ±0.4 | ±0.3 | ±0.2 |
