We’re proud to have recently released the 2018 edition of the Richard Lloyd Sydney Accounting Salary and Market Report. The survey of over 2,400 Sydney Accountants looked into remuneration trends as well as other issues facing the sector, such as diversity, discrimination and workplace satisfaction.
This gave us a snapshot of what the Sydney Accounting sector looks like; who inhabits it, where they work, and how much they’re being paid. From this data, we drew some extremely interesting insights, not least of which was the persisting gap in pay between genders, something that has increased in the 12 months since we first looked at it. The research also shows that just over one in eight Sydney Accountants have felt discriminated against at work in the past year.
Looking at salaries across a range of roles, the survey broke roles down into three separate levels: Support, Mid-Level/Junior Management, and Senior. Out of two of these three levels, we found that the gender pay gap had widened.
At the Senior level, the increase was the most pronounced. On average, women were almost $40,000 worse off than men per year, with the salary gap increasing from 16.78% in 2017 to 23.38% in 2018. Similarly, in Mid-level roles, women’s salaries stayed static while men saw an increase of $4,000, causing the salary gap to increase to 18.28%, up from 13.98% last year.
While salaries at the Support level were even, this was the only role level where women were the overwhelming majority, with nearly 70% of Support level respondents being female. However, the Senior level was a near mirror image of this, with 70% of respondents being men, and yet we saw a significant gap there – even though men and women were motivated by the same things and had the same priorities at work.
It continues to be concerning that 13.41% of respondents reported feeling discriminated against at work in the past year, which stands at just over one in eight people with the most common reasons being race, gender (particularly female) and age (specifically, being too old).
We also found that there was a clear link between those who felt discriminated against and those who felt less satisfied and valued at work (19% in fact), as well as earning $10,000 less than the median salary at their role level. Clearly an issue that the Accounting industry needs to focus on should they want to improve the tenure of their high value employees.
Our workplaces are becoming more and more diverse, with increases in the number of women at senior level year-on-year. The gender pay gap is not something that anybody in the industry would want to see continue and employers need to take action, or risk being left behind, and losing key employees.
For more insights into this topic, including how the genders match up from a happiness perspective, click here to request a copy of the 2018 Richard Lloyd Sydney Accounting Salary Report. Inside you’ll find a deeper investigation into the gender pay gap, as well as a range of other Sydney-specific Accounting sector insights.
Contact us if you would like to discuss our report insights in person or follow us on LinkedIn for all our latest articles.
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