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Gender pay gaps getting worse at News Corp, latest figures reveal

March 9, 2025

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The gender pay gap grew significantly at News Corp’s newspapers and Foxtel last year, with volatile figures emerging across the media sector.

The latest Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA) figures show the gender pay gap of every private company in the country with more than 100 employees. This year’s is the second release of the report, which mimics gender pay reporting schemes that have been established in the UK.

The national gap for average total remuneration is now 21.8%, which sits steady on the previous year, but in the Australian media sector, those figures have been much more unpredictable, with some companies’ gender pay gaps increasing significantly.

Crikey looked at the latest figures for major Australian media publications to see where each employer fell on gender equality in the workplace by a number of key measures (although the data provided by the WGEA is significantly more comprehensive and looks at whether employers have provisions and plans in place for gender equality, domestic violence responses, and maternity leave, among other factors).

Notably, being public agencies, the ABC and SBS weren’t included in the WGEA reporting (but report annually using WGEA standards), with their data coming from their own diversity reports. Private Media, publisher of Crikey, does not have 100 employees and is also not included in the WGEA reporting. Its data has been provided by Private Media directly using WGEA calculations.

The median gender pay gap at Nationwide News, publisher of News Corp’s newspapers (where the average salary is $141,000) now sits at 14%, an increase from 9.4% on last year.

This contrasts with the figures over at the company’s television arm. Sky News Australia was the only major media company last year without a gender pay gap according to WGEA data, and has gone from 1.1% in favour of women to a precise 0% gap this year.

At the recently sold Foxtel (where the average salary is $167,000), the median gap has jumped from 9.8% to 14.1%.

At NewsLifeMedia, which publishes a number of News Corp’s magazines as well as digital masthead news.com.au, the median gap is 3.4%, with women making up 75% of the workforce, as well as 81% of managers.

Across all of the News Corp Australia corporate group, which includes six employers, the median gender pay gap is 5.6%.

Guardian Australia (average salary $139,000), which has had its own employee turmoil to deal with of late, has the best median pay gap figures in media in the latest reporting, with women paid 2.5% more than men.

Network 10 has a gap of 5.4%, Private Media (publisher of Crikey) has an average gap of 6.28%, and the ABC and SBS sit at around 7% per their latest annual reports. Crikey itself has an average pay gap of 23.7% in favour of women, slightly down on FY23.

The biggest pay gap is at Australian Community Media (included in the WGEA data as Rural Press Pty Ltd), where the median gender pay gap is 27.6%. Australian Community Media also has the highest proportion of women in the lowest pay quartile, with 76% of employees in the bottom quartile being women.

Wire service Australian Associated Press (average salary $118,000) has a median gap of 5.8%, and the lowest representation of women in the data surveyed, with 62% of staff being men. AAP also has the equal-lowest representation of women in management, level with Sky News Australia at 30%.

Guardian Australia, like last year, remains the employer with the highest representation of women in the workforce as a whole, but the ABC has the highest representation of women in management roles (noting that the ABC figure is reported as “women in executive positions” which may differ from the WGEA definition of “management”).

The latest figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (which includes the public sector) put the national gender pay gap at 11.9%, a new record low and down on last year’s 15%.

News Corp Australia told Crikey the company “continues to make reducing the gender pay gap a priority. Our pay gap continues to reduce year on year and remains significantly lower than the average for employers in our industry. While this is a continuing positive trend, we remain committed to additional efforts that will result in further reductions”. Spinners for News Corp directed Crikey’s attention to News Corp’s whole group results (which includes Sky News Australia and news.com.au) — a 5.6% median gender pay gap in 2024.

Foxtel told Crikey it has “long been taking deliberate action on gender pay equity including proactive investment in leadership, recruitment and growth programs to ensure our workplace is one of fairness and inclusivity. We continue to prioritise our work in this area in a way that drives positive change for women”.

Sky News Australia told Crikey the company’s WGEA result “reflects our ongoing commitment to provide an equitable workplace for our employees, with our median total remuneration at parity. We remain in line with industry benchmarks and continue to foster fairness and opportunity across our organisation”.

Correction: An earlier version of this story said that “the gender pay gap grew significantly at News Corp”. This has has since been amended to reflect that the gender pay gap has grown significantly at News Corp’s newspapers, not the company at large. Crikey is happy to make this clarification.

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