How The Fred Hollows Foundation is tackling the gender pay gap

The Fred Hollows Foundation knows that as an employer we have a significant
responsibility towards our people and society at large in striving towards a
more equitable world.  

Fred Hollows once said “disequity diminishes us all” and we carry the same
ethos. We can only achieve this through an organisational culture that deeply
respects diversity, equity and inclusion in all its forms.  

Our average total remuneration gender pay gap for 2022-23 was 5.0% and our
median total remuneration gender pay gap for 2022-23 was 7.5%.  

We believe it’s important to understand the context behind these numbers. The
Fred Hollows Foundation’s workforce is predominantly made up of women – 70% of
all our employees and 73% of our Board Directors are women.  

It is very common to have more women in the health and social sector, where on
average 78% of employees and 51% of Board Directors are women. 

We employ a higher proportion of women in part-time or casual roles and in
non-management positions. While we have more women managers at The Foundation (63%), we also have more women than men who are not managers (77%). 

While we celebrate the fact that The Foundation is a majority women-run
organisation, we recognise that we can do more to achieve gender equity, in
partnership with all staff.  

We believe men play an important role in being champions of change, and that
reducing the gender pay gap is not just an issue for women to solve. We are
prepared to tackle this head-on by adopting best practice gender equity and
inclusion and empowering our women to be leaders in the global health sector.   

Steps we have taken to reduce the gender pay gap include: 

Undertaking a pay equity review of all levels to ensure our people are being fairly and equitably compensated. 
Hiring and promoting women to leadership positions (in 2022-2023, 67% of appointments to manager roles, including promotions, were women). 
Offering flexible work to all staff at all levels. 
Developing succession plans that identify key women leaders. 
Discussing unconscious bias to ensure we strive for equity in our decision-making processes.

We also support programs that develop women leaders across the world, such as
the Australian Government-funded Women in Health Leadership program – Mekong
Region.

Facilitating cross-cultural opportunities like this is an important way to make
a difference for women not just in Australia, but other developing countries who
face even greater obstacles to gender equity. 

You can read The Foundation’s full Gender Pay Gap report on the WGEA website.