HKA Global supports the Australian Workplace Gender Equality Agency’s (‘WGEA’) publication of Australian gender pay gap data to inform more effective strategies and actions to promote gender equality in the workplace.
At HKA, all our employee decisions are based on merit. We ensure we reward results, which benefits our clients and employees while adhering to our Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion (ED&I) principles of promoting fair and equal consideration for all.
Our Gender Pay Gap is one of the metrics for measuring merit-based gender equality across our global business. It is linked to our Total Reward and ED&I strategies to improve merit-based gender equality and is underpinned by our HKA People vision: Everything we do makes HKA a great place for our excellent people to work, grow and enjoy.
“Everything we do makes HKA a great place for our excellent people to work, grow and enjoy.”
In this Employer Statement, you will find key details of HKA’s 2023-2024 Australian Gender Pay Gap results, our approach to our Gender Pay Gap, further context and drivers, followed by the actions and strategies we are taking to help improve our Gender Pay Gap in Australia.
What the Gender Pay Gap tells us: The Gender Pay Gap tells us the difference between the average or median pay between women and men within the organisation across the whole workforce (in this context, this is across all our Australian employees, regardless of role or level).
What the Gender Pay Gap does not tell us: The Gender Pay Gap is not the same as equal/fair pay as it does not indicate a disparity of pay within role levels. Equal/fair pay assesses whether individual women and men with equivalent levels of experience and performance are paid differently for the same or equivalent work.
HKA’s approach to our Gender Pay Gap:
At HKA, we are passionate about having a talented and increasingly diverse global workforce. We are committed to organically achieving a global merit-based gender balance of 50:50. In Australia our Gender Pay Gap is reducing year on year, yet we know we still have work to do, and we are committed to improving our merit-based gender equality.
Merit-based gender equality continues to be an area of focus for HKA, and in Australia, we have made meaningful progress year-on-year. This is evidenced by our 2023-24 Australian Gender Pay Gap results, which have improved between 5% and 5.7% since 2021.
We know we still have work to do, as our results are higher than our industry benchmarks, and we are committed to continue building on these improvements in 2025 and beyond, which in turn will help to close our Australia Gender Pay Gap and organically improve merit-based gender equality.
HKA’s key 2023-2024 WGEA Australian Gender Pay Gap results
As of the snapshot date 1 January 2024, HKA’s Australia Gender Pay Gap results were 33.6% (average) and 32.2% (median), representing a 5% and 5.7% improvement since our 2021-22 results.
- HKA’s Australia average total remuneration gender pay gap in 2023-24 was 33.6%
- Definition: This is the difference between women’s and men’s average earnings (including bonus), expressed as a percentage of men’s earnings, across all levels.
- Improvement: This result has improved by 5% since our 2021-22 results.
- HKA’s Australia median total remuneration gender pay gap in 2023-24 is 32.2%
- Definition: This is the difference between women’s and men’s median earnings (including bonus), expressed as a percentage of men’s earnings, across all levels.
- Improvement: This result has improved by 5.7% since our 2021-22 results.
To see the full 2023-2024 report for HKA’s Gender Pay Gap results in Australia, please visit the WGEA website: WGEA’s Employer Data Explorer. (in the Dashboard filters, search for ‘HKA Global Pty Ltd’ under the drop-down menu, Employer Name)
Gender Pay Gap Drivers at HKA
As of 1 January 2024, HKA in Australia had more men than women employees (66% vs. 34%). Additionally, we had more men in Australia-based management positions (76.5%) than women (23.5%), which typically attract higher total rewards and thus impacts our Gender Pay Gap.
At HKA, there were three main outcomes after applying the criteria of WGEA’s published Gender Pay Gap data, including:
- As of 1 January 2024, HKA’s Australian employee population comprised 34% women and 66% men. Employee gender at HKA is disclosed on a voluntary basis, and employees who identify as non-binary are currently excluded from the data, as per WGEA’s requirements. HKA supports WGEA’s ambition to move towards collecting data for employees who identify as non-binary.
- As of 1 January 2024, we had a higher percentage of men in management positions (76.5%) than women in management positions in Australia (23.5%), e.g. Partner, Principal, Director. Management roles typically attract higher total rewards, and proportionally, at HKA in Australia, more men occupy our management roles than women, thus impacting our Gender Pay Gap. This does not suggest pay disparity in role levels, as the Gender Pay Gap considers the whole workforce, regardless of role/level.
- We are a global business, and four women comprise our Global C-Suite: our Chief Financial Officer, Chief Marketing and Communications Officer, Chief People Officer and Regional Chief Executive Officer, International, who have global accountabilities that include Australia. As these women are employed in overseas HKA entities, they are excluded from the Australian WGEA Gender Pay Gap data. These four leaders are excluded as WGEA only reports on Australia-based employees. Had these leaders been included, this would have had a positive impact on our Australian Gender Pay Gap.
Actions and Strategies
HKA continues to improve our Gender Pay Gap through a fair and merit-based total reward approach, clear career progression routes to Partnership, learning and development opportunities (including mentorship), family-friendly policies, and our dedicated ED&I Committees. We promote a healthy, open and honest high-performing culture and work to prevent discrimination.
HKA recognises that achieving merit-based gender pay equality takes time, cultural change, and action in several different areas. Successful actions we are taking to continue to improve our Australian gender pay gap and tackling some of the drivers outlined above include:
- A fair and merit-based total reward approach, clearly communicated and embedded through the inclusion of gender and performance metrics to support fair and merit-based decision-making. In addition, we refer to objective internal and external benchmarking data to eliminate bias. We implement global equality, diversity and inclusion principles in all employment decisions.
- Clear career progression routes to Partnership – To positively influence the gender pay gap in our global Partner team, we have an application-based, robust, and transparent Partner track program that provides direction, mentorship and development to enable our top talent to achieve Partner status over a defined period.
- Learning and development opportunities, including mentoring – To help HKA employees progress in their careers, learning and development opportunities are available to all, regardless of role, level or location. HKA also has an established global mentor program supported by a mentor matching platform to help mentors and mentees grow, learn and develop professionally.
- Family-friendly policies – To support attraction and retention and gender equality, we have recently improved our Australian parental leave policy. In addition, we support our employees’ flexible working arrangements to fit around their family life.
- Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (ED&I) Committees – HKA has established executive-sponsored, employee-led ED&I Committees in each of our regions. These committees are committed to improving gender equality, making HKA a more inclusive place to work for everyone, and coming together to recognise and celebrate noteworthy international days such as International Women’s Day.
- Promoting a healthy, open, and honest high-performing culture and preventing discrimination– HKA is an equal opportunities employer. We put merit first while believing that no one should be discriminated against because of their differences (e.g., age, disability, ethnicity, gender or religion). Additionally, we ensure our employees know how they can raise concerns and have embedded Grievance, Whistleblowing and Disciplinary policies.
At HKA, Equality is for everyone. Diversity valued. Inclusion always.
If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us via the contact details below.
Contact Details
Hayley Abrahams
Global Total Reward Manager
HayleyAbrahams@hka.com
Ph: +44 7521 389 640
Kate Wood
Partner, Chief People Officer
KateWood@hka.com
Ph: +44 7395 833 829
Elle Weeden
People Director, Asia Pacific
ElleWeeden@hka.com
+61 2 9255 9177
