ACSO is committed to the equitable treatment of all genders, and we strive to provide a safe workplace, which operates without bias for all. We are deeply committed to equitable treatment for our team members, participants, and partners and will continue to adapt our strategies and policy as needed in an effort to minimise, and eventually erase, the gender pay gap.
ACSO’s gender pay gap is relatively small compared to other organisations and the national average and we look forward to continuing that progress for years to come.
A snapshot of our results
The most recent report from the Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA), released in February 2025, reports that ACSO’s average total remuneration gender pay gap is 4.8% and the median is 2.5%.
After steadily reducing over time, particularly in the last four years ACSO’s gender pay gap has plateaued in the neutral. This shows that our current gender equity strategy and policies are working, and genuinely making a difference for our team members.
You can see how ACSO’s gender pay gap has reduced here:
ACSO’s key management personnel (excluding CEO) is 100% women, and the numbers are still high for women occupying some of ACSO’s entry-level roles, e.g. administration, coordinators, entry-level workers, which generally have a lower salary.
However, it should also be noted that the numbers for women being promoted, in both management and non-management roles, are notably high – 76% and 63% respectively.
How do we compare to other organisations like us?
To give you an idea of where ACSO’s gender pay gap sits compared to other organisations:
ACSO’s gender pay gap is 4.8% (mean total remuneration)
ACSO’s gender pay gap is 2.5% (median total remuneration)
The average gender pay gap of other social assistance services in Australia is 2.8%
Australia’s national gender pay gap is 21.8%
ACSO’s gender pay gap is relatively small compared to other organisations and the national average, and it’s also been steadily decreasing in the last few years.
It should be acknowledged that the current reported numbers about the pay gap take a binary view of gender, and do not include non-binary and gender-diverse people. ACSO does have a number of non-binary and gender-diverse team members, who have therefore not been represented in this report.
What are we doing to achieve these numbers?
We are deeply committed to equitable treatment of our team members, participants, and partners. We believe in humanity and celebrating the diverse voices of our community through leadership, practice and policy design, to honour and embrace diverse traditions, cultures and experiences of those we support and work alongside.
Our commitment to equity and inclusivity extends to the equal treatment of all genders, and we will continue to adapt our strategies and policy as needed in an effort to minimise, and eventually erase, the gender pay gap.
ACSO believes in providing a safe and inclusive workplace for people of all genders, and our policies adhere to the view that gender is a spectrum, not a binary.
ACSO already have several strategies in place that impact the gender pay gap, and they’ve played a part in our neutral placement.
We want to make sure we continue to do what’s already working, and will regularly make sure we’re re-examining these strategies to ensure they’re still positively impacting our most valuable asset – our people.
These strategies are:
Thinking long-term: we’ll be continuing our long-term strategies and succession planning to ensure gender equity.
Learning: we will continue to offer training and development sessions that educates our team members and leaders about unconscious bias.
Different kinds of leave: we offer gender-specific leave options, in addition to Annual, Personal, and Long Service leave. For example:
Parental leave of 14 months for the primary carer, and 2 weeks for the secondary carer.
Gender Affirmation Leave of up to 5 days of paid leave and 5 days of unpaid leave (total of 10 days) per year for the purpose of gender affirmation.
Flexibility: we’ll continue to offer flexible work arrangements, which are widely utilised by ACSO’s team members.
Gender Based Violence: We recognise that gender-based violence affects our people and we have policies in place that support women who are impacted and take a gradual approach to positive behaviour changes for anyone in our employee compliment who is choosing to use violence. In addition we provide multiday learning and development session for all our people on Family Violence so that we can better respond and support anyone who is affected.
Equity and Inclusion Team: We have a dedicated Equity and Inclusion team that works across the business to develop and implement strategic plans with the focus of elevating the wellbeing of our people.
Inclusive Practice Champions: Our Inclusive Practice Champions support the wider organisation with feedback and codesign of initiative that bolster an equitable working environment.
Learn more about workforce composition: We’ll seek to understand the contributing factors to why we as an organisation and the wider industry attracts different genders to different roles, and how we implement this knowledge with our hiring and promotion processes.
We’re proud of the measures we already have in place and we acknowledge and respect that there’s still work to do. Our Organisational Strategy for 2024-2027 reflects this sentiment. If you would like to learn more about gender equality in the workplace, the WGEA website provides detailed dashboards of data at employer, industry, and national levels.
* A positive percentage indicates men are paid more on average than women. A negative percentage indicates women are paid more on average than men.
