Statement on gender pay gap

"Increased transparency is an important step towards pay equality and we welcome WGEA's report and the attention it has brought to Australia's gender pay gap. 

Telstra's gender pay gap, as identified in the WGEA report, is a result of having more men employed in technical, leadership or specialist roles, where market remuneration is higher. 

We are committed to reducing this gap and will intensify our work supporting more women to follow technical, leadership and specialist career pathways to increase the percentage of women in traditionally male-dominated areas. We will also do deeper analysis of these areas to make sure our current initiatives are going far enough, or identify additional steps we can take that will make an even greater difference."

– Statement from Kathryn van der Merwe, Group Executive, People, Culture and Communications.

Telstra's current programs to reduce the gap are in line with the Champions of Change Coalition's 2023 recommendations, and include:

• Committing to increasing female representation in executive leadership at Telstra as a signatory of the 40:40 Vision. By signing up to this alongside other ASX300 organisations, we're seeking to achieve gender balance in executive leadership, by reaching 40 percent female representation, 40 percent male, and 20 percent identifying as any gender, by 2030. 
• Opening the career door wider: In FY24 and FY25, we’ll expand our Career Start Internships program (where women already make up over half of our paid internships targeting engineering and tech) to make it easier for women and under-represented groups to learn the in-demand technical skills we need now and into the future. 
• Supporting women to pursue technical and leadership roles: We'll continue to invest in our Women in Tech experience to recognise and empower our existing female tech talent and support their growth into leadership so we can increase the ratio of female talent in influential tech roles. 
• Creating accountability and transparency from the top down: Since setting measurable gender representation targets and putting them into our Group Executive scorecards, women now make up over half of our non-manager promotions (up from 33.7%) and 38.3% of manager promotions (up from 34.1%).