Executive Summary
Gender equality in the workplace seems to be advancing, albeit slowly, with the best performing company globally achieving a score of 74%, compared with 71% last year.
This year’s data shows that women continue to occupy for the most part the lower levels in the workforce, with only 10% of companies having gender-balanced boards and 6% having gender-balanced executive teams.
Overall, a single company stands out in our research by achieving gender balance at all levels – board, executive, senior management and workforce. Less than 1% of the companies (29 companies) have no pay gap (i.e. published an overall mean pay gap of less than 3%) and only one company has no pay gap both overall and in its respective pay bands. Gender pay reporting remains one of the least disclosed metrics across almost all countries.
Our research over the past three years showcases how change is possible when companies, government and investors play their role. Asset owners in particular are increasingly demanding enhanced disclosure and better risk management of the companies they invest in (e.g. the shareholder lawsuits over sexual harassment at Google.)
Some governments are also now requiring companies to disclose certain equality metrics, and a growing number of companies are promoting best practices, thus increasing peer pressure. The legislative cases of Australia and the UK are indicative. Australian companies have consistently climbed in the Equileap rankings over the past few years, and are now taking half of the top 10 spots. This can be credited to mandatory annual reporting on corporate gender equality and thorough gender audits facilitated by the Australian Government. In the UK, following the 2017 Equality Act, companies are leading the way in terms of transparency by reporting their gender pay gaps.
At the same time, we see that in countries where government action is limited (e.g. on the provision of state-funded parental leave), some companies are stepping in by offering generous paid leave to employees.
Looking at the country breakdown, Australia, France and the Nordics, led by Sweden, remain the best performing countries on gender equality overall. Finally, 58% of companies globally still do not have an anti-sexual harassment policy, which indicates a clear margin for improvement in a post-MeToo era.