Gender pay gap statement

MinterEllison gender pay gap employer statement

Our commitment to gender equality

At MinterEllison, we champion and advocate for inclusion. We do this because our diversity is our greatest strength and is fundamental to our character and identity.

We know that when we bring together diversity of thinking, skills, experience, genders, backgrounds, orientations and abilities, and create inclusive ways to listen, learn and devise truly unique solutions, we thrive and we deliver excellent results for our clients, people and communities.

We're committed to the equal treatment of all our employees including on the grounds of gender. This is reflected in our most recent engagement survey, where 94% of respondents believe their immediate leader genuinely supports equality between genders.

We're committed to providing a workplace that is free from bullying, discrimination and harassment of all types, including on the basis of gender and of a sexual nature.

The gender pay gap

From February 2024 the Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA), will publish information regarding the organisation wide gender pay gaps for all organisations that report to WGEA. The data that WGEA is publishing does not cover equal pay for like-for-like or comparable roles within organisations.

Our organisation wide gender pay gap is:

Our average organisation-wide gender pay gap has improved across the board. This trend has been consistent for the past three years, resulting in our lowest-ever average gender pay gap for both total remuneration and base salary in 2023.

Our organisation-wide gender pay gap can be explained by the make-up of our firm – specifically, by the large number of women in legal support and business operations roles. When the salaries of women performing in these roles are compared to salaries across the firm (including the salaries of all legal and consulting employees and organisational leaders), a clear gender pay gap emerges.

However, when we consider like-for-like roles and examine salaries by cohort, for legal, consulting, legal support and business operations, the gender pay gaps are significantly lower than the organisation-wide gender pay gap.

This means that all genders performing in the same or similar roles are paid within the same range.

We conduct a detailed analysis of our gender pay gap as part of our annual remuneration review. We remains committed to reducing the organisation-wide pay gap and will continue to take steps to improve gender equality firmwide.

How we're addressing the gender pay gap

For many years, we have been addressing the gender pay gap and inequality as part of our Diversity and Inclusion strategy and supporting actions. Our programs and actions have been effective and have led to progress, yet we know there is still more to do.

As a Champions of Change Coalition member, we advocate for and implement change to foster an inclusive and safe workplace here and for the legal profession.

Our actions have resulted in measurable outcomes in diversity, inclusion and narrowing the pay gap. We've set targets for gender balance in leadership roles; we are attracting, retaining and promoting women equally; we are supporting caregivers to balance work and family commitments; we have gender equality networks and communities at the firm to empower our people, and we are supporting gender-equitable briefs to female barristers.

Addressing imbalance in senior leadership through a 40:40:20 target

We are actively addressing gender imbalance at senior levels and are working toward a gender target 40:40:20 – 40% women, 40% men and 20% any gender – represented in MinterEllison's partnership and leadership roles.

The firm is on track to achieve its partnership target by 2025 with female Partners comprising 34% of the partnership as at 1 July 2023. As at 1 July 2023 we also have more than 40% women on our Executive Leadership Team and in Office Managing Partner and Practice Group Leader roles.

Every year, since 2013, we've increased the number of women promoted into senior roles across locations and lines of business. We're passionate about empowering women and will continue to monitor the promotion of our female talent and invest heavily in developing our female talent pipeline. We continue to develop our Emerging Female Leaders Program, designed to support female Partners and other leaders through to leadership positions in the firm, by strengthening their leadership voices.

Sustainable ways of working

Our firm demonstrates that it values sustainable ways of working by building a culture which enables equality of access for all genders to whole of firm flexible working practices.

Our people have the opportunity to provide feedback on how well we are embedding flexible working through our engagement and pulse surveys each year. 82% of people who responded to our most recent engagement survey agree or strongly agree that their work schedule allows sufficient flexibility to enable them to meet their personal or family needs, which is an increase from our 2021 result and is consistent across all genders.

Supporting caregivers

Our Supporting Caregivers Program supports working parents, and our people who care for elderly relatives and/or relatives with a disability. Our aim is to provide the support, the understanding and the flexibility to help navigate the challenge of achieving the right balance between work and family.
We are continuing to ensure that both our parental leave policy and support are aligned to our purpose to create sustainable value with our people and help to deliver a more inclusive workplace. We have recently enhanced our parental leave policy to provide:

• 26 weeks paid parental leave, which may be taken in two separate periods of leave
• the option to take two weeks of paid parental leave flexibly to support the transition back to work or for those occasions when extra leave for parenting is required
• superannuation paid for up to 12 months, including while on unpaid parental leave
• no distinction between primary and secondary carers
• introduction of a parental leave coaching pilot for parents to equip them to confidently navigate the working parent transition.

Gender equality network: WISE

MinterEllison's WISE gender equality network ('Women, Inclusion, Support, Equality'), launched in 2019, facilitates opportunities for education, awareness and engagement on gender issues within the firm and in the wider community. WISE aims to provide safe spaces for advice and support, facilitate professional development and mentoring opportunities and champion and advocate for gender equality and the advancement of women.

Gender equitable briefing

MinterEllison is committed to driving cultural change within the legal profession by supporting the progression and retention of female barristers and address the under-representation of women in Australia's courts through gender equitable briefing targets. The firm reports annually to the Law Council of Australia on the rate and value of briefs to female barristers and has set targets of 30% of the number of briefs and value of briefs to female barristers. We have seen an increase on both the rate and value of briefs since FY21.