Georgie Bezette

Our commitment to fair and equal pay

message from Georgie Bezette, Chief People Officer

Fairness and equity are at the heart of how we approach pay, ensuring people with similar skills, experience, and contributions are paid equally for the same work.


We’re committed to creating an inclusive organisation that reflects the societies and communities we’re part of – one where everyone’s skills, experience and contributions are valued and recognised.

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I’m proud to share that our equal pay gap - comparing men and women performing the same work in the same location – remains less than 1.5% in favour of men. This is a strong endorsement of our commitment to pay equity and transparency, and it places us well ahead of industry standards.

Our latest submission to the Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA) also shows our average base salary pay gap is 1.3% in favour of men, compared with 16.4% across the mining industry. We’re making meaningful progress in narrowing our total remuneration gap too, supported by increasing the representation of women in operational roles.

These results reflect the strength of our pay equity strategy. We continue to invest in transparent pay practices, annual reporting and ongoing Pay Health reviews to ensure people doing the same or comparable work are paid equally. This strategy is central to how we support fairness across the organisation.

We know diverse teams make better decisions and deliver better outcomes – so we’re focused on creating a culture where creativity thrives and every voice is welcomed, heard and respected. Our annual reporting to WGEA is one of the ways we hold ourselves accountable as we continue to improve.

As one of the world’s largest mining companies we are determined to lead the change by building a more respectful and inclusive workplace. Through strong leadership, education, listening, and career development we’re removing barriers and ensuring everyone has the opportunity to bring their best.

A major milestone for us in 2024 was achieving global Living Wage Employer accreditation. This means every Rio Tinto employee in every location worldwide is paid an income that supports a decent standard of living - well above minimum wage requirements. It’s a significant achievement that sets us apart as an industry leader and reinforces our commitment to fair pay, employee wellbeing and social progress.

Our accreditation is independently verified and regularly reviewed, ensuring we continue to meet the highest standards of fairness, transparency and pay equity.

I invite you to join us on this journey, one where we champion equitable pay, celebrate diversity and build a culture where everyone feels valued, respected, and fairly treated.

Equal Pay Gap

Our equal pay gap, the primary lens we use when assessing gender pay, measures the extent to which women and men employed by our company in the same location and performing work of equal value receive the same pay. In 2025, our equal pay gap was less than 1.5%* in favor of men.

Gender Pay Gap

The gender pay gap reflects the difference between the average earnings of women and men across the Group (excluding incentive pay), regardless of role, expressed as a percentage of men’s earnings. In 2025, our gender pay gap was less than 1%* in favour of women.

* Based on full time equivalent, contractual base salary

We are now a Living Wage employer

Further reinforcing our approach to fair and equal pay is our global Living Wage Employer accreditation from the Fair Wage Network (FWN), which we achieved in 2024. We successfully maintained this accreditation in 2025, demonstrating the sustainability of our approach and the effectiveness of the pay systems that support it.

This accreditation recognises that our employees are paid a living wage, that supports a reasonable standard of living, covering essential expenses such as food, water, housing, education, health care, transport, clothing, and provision for unexpected events.

Being a Living Wage Employer reflects our core values of caring for our people, their families and communities, ensuring they can maintain a decent quality of life, free from financial hardship. Aligned with our core value of care, the benefits extend beyond our workforce to families and communities worldwide.

Being a Living Wage Employer is a cornerstone of our pay equity strategy and a strategic pillar of our fair pay approach. It also places us among a very small group of organisations globally to demonstrate a consistent, independently verified commitment to living wages across all markets.

For us, this accreditation is a clear measure of progress toward building a more inclusive and sustainable future.

Gender pay gap

  • Australia

    Gender Pay Gap – Australia1

    We participate in country-specific reporting, such as the Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA) in Australia. The current WGEA report reflects 2024/2025 data submitted in 2025. Variances in reporting timeframe and methodology mean that the outcomes are not directly comparable to our Group-level reporting on gender pay, but they provide valuable insight into our equal and fair pay practices.

    A summary of our WGEA gender pay outcomes is outlined below:

     
    Rio Tinto
    Mining industry
      2024/2025 reporting year (published in March 2026)
    Average base salary  1.3% +Men

    16.4% +Men

    Median base salary 3.1% +Men 17.3% +Men
    Average total remuneration 7.2% +Men 18.9% +Men
    Median total remuneration  11.8% +Men 20.4% +Men

    1 As calculated by the Workplace Gender Equality Agency

    • Our base salary gap is within WGEA’s “neutral” category (+/- 5%), reflecting fair pay for comparable roles.
    • Our total remuneration gap is largely attributed to the underrepresentation of women in operational roles, which attract higher allowances for hardship. Around 80% of men in our workforce work on-site, compared with just over 50% of women. Encouragingly, both our average and median total remuneration gap have narrowed as more women were hired to site-based roles.
    • Our pay gaps are significantly lower than the mining industry average, reflecting our leadership in pay equity. Increasing the representation of women at every level remains critical and is embedded as a performance metric on our group scorecard, linked to year-end incentives (STIP). We continue to monitor and report gender pay gaps and invest annually in Pay Health to address and eliminate inequity.
  • UK

    Gender pay gap - UK

    The methodology required by the UK regulations differs from our approach to assessing gender pay equity.

    The UK methodology calculates the difference in average pay and bonuses between all men and women within an employing entity. This differs from Equal Pay, which means that men and women in the same employment performing equal work must receive equal pay.

    We have published combined figures for Rio Tinto London Limited (RTLL) and Rio Tinto Mining and Exploration Limited, as set out below: 

    Rio Tinto UK Gender Pay Gap Metrics (UK Government Methodology) 1

    Gender pay gap disclosable metrics

    (see below for definitions)

    Results RTLL

    (April 2025)

    Results RTLL

    (April 2024)

    Mean hourly gender pay gap2

    24.8%

    24%

    Median hourly gender pay gap2

    25.8%

    17.1%

    Mean bonus pay gap for the year3

    47.1%

    62.9%

    Median bonus pay gap for year3

    31.4%

    28.2%

    Proportion of men receiving a bonus payment4

    95%

    95%

    Proportion of women receiving a bonus payment4

    96%

    95%

     

    Notes:

    1 Year on year variances in the gaps are primarily a reflection of changes in demographics from employee movement across the 2 periods.

    2 Indicates by how much women’s mean/median hourly rate is lower than men.

    3 Indicates by how much women’s mean/median bonus is lower than men.

    4 All current UK employees are eligible for a bonus. Percentages less than 100% reflect employees joining after the bonus cut-off period.

     

    As at April 2025
    As at April 2024

    Proportion of men and women in each quartile pay band

    Men

    Women

    Men

    Women

    Lower pay quartile

    38%

    62%

    43%

    57%

    Lower middle pay quartile

    57%

    43%

    59%

    41%

    Upper middle pay quartile

    59%

    41%

    60%

    40%

    Upper pay quartile

    69%

    31%

    71%

    29%

     

    Definitions used for UK disclosures in the table above:

    Mean/median gender pay gap

    Difference between the mean/median hourly rate of pay paid to men and women (employees whose pay has been reduced as a result of leave and therefore are not "full-pay relevant" are excluded from the analysis). A positive value indicates that the hourly pay for men is higher than for women.

    Mean/median bonus pay gap

    Difference between the mean/median bonus pay paid to men and women (employees not in receipt of a bonus are excluded from the analysis). A positive value indicates that the bonus for men is higher than for women. 

    Prop. men/women in each quartile band

    Proportion of men/women employees in 4 quartile bands, which are calculated by dividing the employee population into 4 equal parts.

    Commentary on Results for Rio Tinto London Limited

    Gender pay gap calculations, including the UK pay gap methodology, are deeply influenced by the seniority of men and women in an organisation and industry.

    Women continue to be underrepresented in senior roles. This is evident in Rio Tinto London Limited, where employees are primarily located in a small corporate office in London, which contains some of the most senior roles in the company. As representation of women at senior levels is lower, this proportionally affects the size of the UK gender pay gap metrics. The approach to addressing this in the UK is the same as our global goals, including targets to increase the representation of women across the entire business.

    Hourly pay gap

    The hourly pay gap reflects the number of women in senior roles at Rio Tinto London Limited, as evidenced by the percentage of women in roles paid in the upper quartile or middle upper quartile.

    It is worth noting that the reported level of gender pay gap is materially lower when there are equal numbers of men and women at a given level of seniority. For example, in middle management and middle professional roles, which are the most balanced in terms of gender representation, the mean and median Gender Pay Gaps are 6% in favour of men at 5 April 2025.

    Bonus pay gap (Variable pay)

    The ‘bonus’ primarily includes the value of short (STIP) and long term (LTIP) incentives.

    Consistency and fairness checks are conducted annually on STIP and LTIP awards as part of the Annual Remuneration Review.

    The ‘bonus’ pay gap is primarily driven by a higher representation of men in upper bands, which attract higher salaries, STIP and LTIP opportunities.

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Our commitment to fair and equal pay at Rio Tinto: Employer Statement
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