‘It’s been a weekly and daily focus of our teams’: How SCA lead the radio networks on closing the gender pay gap
Southern Cross Austereo has the smallest gender pay gap among its competitors, but there’s still more to do, according to CEO John Kelly.
Last week, the Workplace Gender Equality Agency published the gender pay gap for more than 5,000 Australian companies.
SCA was revealed to have a base wage gap of 5.6% and a total pay gap of 5.9%. This compares rather favourably with both their closest competitors in the radio sector — Nova Entertainment has a 9.0% base wage gap, 6% total pay gap, while ARN had a 10.2% salary gap and a 12% total pay gap — as well as the national average, which was 14.5% and 19% respectively.
ARN felt the force of WGEA’s data dump almost immediately; the same morning the company was revealed to have the biggest pay discrepancy between sexes, the network’s biggest names discussed the situation on air.
“Southern Cross Austereo has a disgraceful 5.9% pay gap,” Kyle Sandilands announced last Tuesday. “At Nova and Smooth FM it is even worse, 6%. But, unfortunately, the number one spot is at KIIS FM – at the top of the tree with a 12% pay gap disparity.”
Sandilands then brought on one of the show’s male producers, and another female KIIS staffer, revealing the male was paid double that of his female colleague.
“Are you freaking joking?” Jackie O exploded. “Why is Peter getting that much money? I’m so angry about that, it makes my blood boil.” Jackie O, and other female workers, then staged an on-air walkout. “We have all gone”, she declared.
ARN chief people officer, Angela Ewers, told Mumbrella the next day they have a lot of work to do.
“ARN is active in creating an inclusive workplace, as recognised in the Diversity Council of Australia’s 2023 Inclusive Employer Index,” the statement reads.
“Over the past three years, ARN has made progress in reducing gender pay disparities by implementing a robust, companywide remuneration framework that ensures individuals doing the same role are paid equally.
“Like many companies, our gender pay gap is primarily driven by structural factors and we acknowledge we still have work to do to improve the gender balance within senior leadership, executive and board positions.”
Despite Sandilands dubbing it “disgraceful”, SCA’s gender pay gap is less than half that of ARN. According to SCA CEO John Kelly, this is because the company is doing the work each day to close that gap.
“It was four years ago when we actually put the plan in place to improve equality, in terms of our wages for females and males,” he tells Mumbrella.
“It’s been a weekly and daily focus of our teams; that every time a role comes up, we benchmark that, across the year. But also, each year, we do salary increases. That is the absolute focus of our people and culture team.
“So, it’s no surprise that we’ve able to improve to 5.6%, which is the best in our sector, well below the national average.
“But, we’ll continue to look to improve that further in future years, with continued focus.”
Read our full chat with Kelly here.
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Nathan Jolly is the Deputy Editor of Mumbrella. He joined the team in July, 2023.
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