Statement on gender pay gap 2025

“We’re committed to building a diverse team who work in a safe, inclusive and equitable environment at Telstra and a team that is reflective of our customers and the communities in which we live, work and provide services. This goes to the heart of our purpose, of who we are and of what we do. 

Being transparent about our gender pay data is important because our people can see the progress we’re making to delivering on a commitment to improve (or close) the gap with gender pay. 

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

This is a legacy issue in our industry but importantly it is changing.

As Australia’s leading telecommunications company, we’re committed to accelerating this change because everyone benefits when there’s diversity at all levels of our business. And importantly, our reviews show we don’t pay women differently to men doing the same work.

We’re confident that, over time, the strategies we have in place will see this gap reduce.”

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

Our data-driven approach to closing the representation gap

To close our gender representation gap, we’re taking a data-driven approach to develop, retain and recruit women talent by:

  • Building stronger pathways for women to choose technical and specialist education and support progression through initiatives like our Women in Tech and Girls in Tech programs and the RISE Project
  • Holding ourselves accountable by measuring representation aspirations and tracking our progress, including our commitment to reach a 40:40:20 gender balance (40% men, 40% women and 20% any gender) by 2030 across our workforce. 
  • Addressing cultural and systemic barriers through our continued commitment to policies like our gender-neutral parental leave, superannuation paid on unpaid parental leave and flexible work.
  • Continuing to regularly review what we pay men and women across all our roles to proactively identify and remove any bias. 

Our ongoing commitment to talent diversity

Change takes time, that’s why in FY24 we expanded our programs to increase the pipeline of diverse talent, including: 

These are in addition to our ongoing commitment to Career Start Internships which aim to make it easier for women and under-represented groups to learn the in-demand technical skills we need now and into the future.