News | WGEA Employer Statement (2024 / 2025 reporting period)

People are at the centre of everything we do at Gadens. We actively create a workplace where all our people feel valued, supported, and empowered to build successful, fulfilling careers. Gender equality is a core focus for our firm, and we invest in initiatives that strengthen fairness, inclusion and create equitable opportunities for everyone at Gadens.

Our gender pay gap

Over the last reporting period, we continued to make progress and achieved improved GPG results. We’re thrilled to confirm the below improvements:

We are encouraged by this outcome, particularly when considered alongside industry and national benchmarks. Our improved results reflect deliberate action and sustained focus on equity.

Below are our published GPG results for the 2024/2025 reporting period.

Gadens (lawyers*)

*excludes partner remuneration

Eltav Investments (the service company of Gadens)

Gadens (Eltav Investments and Gadens combined)

The WGEA does not provide industry comparisons for consolidated results.

Addressing the gender pay gap

The gender pay gap in an important indicator of equity in the workplace. Beyond the results, we focus on understanding the drivers behind our data and taking meaningful, practical action to support sustained improvement over time.

Gender representation and pay equity

At Gadens, we are committed to balanced representation at every level of the firm. We are proud of the progress we have made, particularly in increasing the number of women in leadership roles at our firm, while recognising that there is more to do to achieve representation more widely.

Currently, women comprise:

• 64% of our entire workforce
• 40% of our Partnership
• 50% of our Management / Executive team
• 60% of promotions (July 2025)

We are confident that we have pay equity at Gadens in like-for-like roles. We assess this regularly through our annual performance and remuneration review processes. In this reporting period, women represent 65% of our top two pay quartiles, while also comprising 71.5% of our lower pay quartiles. This concentration of women in lower‑remunerated roles contributes to our overall gender pay gap.

Gender-neutral parental leave

We introduced our market‑leading, gender‑neutral Parental Leave Policy in 2022 to ensure paid parental leave is accessible to all parents and supports long‑term workforce participation. The policy provides 30 weeks of paid leave and removes the distinction between primary and secondary carers. Leave can also be taken flexibly over a two‑year period, with no qualifying period, making it easier for all families to access support when they need it.

To help reduce the long‑term impact of parental leave on women’s superannuation and earning capacity, we pay superannuation on both paid and unpaid parental leave for up to 52 weeks, calculated on an employee’s full‑time equivalent salary (including for part‑time staff). We also provide specialist parental‑leave coaching throughout the journey and offer a graduated return‑to‑work program that supports a smooth transition back into the workplace without financial impact.

Flexible working

Our flexible work approach, Your Work. Your Way, helps our people balance their lives with workplace responsibilities. This framework supports a wide range of flexible options, including remote work, varied hours and part‑time arrangements.

By embedding flexibility into the way we operate, we support long‑term, sustainable careers, where women are supported to remain and progress at Gadens, positively influencing career development and earnings.

Equitable briefing

Gadens is a signatory to the Law Council of Australia’s Equitable Briefing Policy. This commitment is reflected in our own internal policy that guides partners and lawyers to intentionally consider who they brief for their matters – promoting fair access to work and helping address structural under‑representation across the Bar.

Diversity

Our Inclusion & Diversity Strategy focuses on building awareness, embedding inclusive behaviours and addressing systemic barriers. We encourage active participation across the firm through education, events, and everyday actions that reinforce inclusive behaviours. Everyone at Gadens has a role to play in strengthening a culture where people feel safe and supported to bring their authentic selves to work.

To drive meaningful and sustainable progress, we have established a series of employee‑led Inclusion & Diversity Working Groups focused on Caring Responsibilities, First Nations Engagement, Gender Equity and LGBTQIA+ inclusion.

We also acknowledge that current GPG reporting does not include data about non-binary employees. We support the work underway by the WGEA and specialist organisations to develop an approach to capture this data in a way that is safe and respectful.

Our commitment

We are committed to creating a workplace where everyone can succeed, and where gender equity underpins how we operate. We will continue to build on our progress and take deliberate action in pursuit of closing the gender pay gap.