Rio Tinto statement - WGEA Gender pay gap

Our approach to fair and equal pay

We’ve been on a pay equity journey since 2018 and have a strategic approach for setting pay, driven by principles of fairness, equity and competitiveness. 

A key component of our remuneration is our annual base pay review made up of 2 components – a General Increase and a Pay Health investment. 

The General Increase is framed around projected movements in key economic factors such as wage inflation, Consumer Price Index (CPI), salary increase projections for relevant industries, our business context and affordability, and peers that we compete with for talent. 

Our Pay Health assessment, ensures our base salaries are competitive, equitable and development driven, recognising an employee’s growth in role, and the annual investment provides a way to address any unintended gaps. 

We participate in reporting and disclosures across several industry and legislative standards at a local, regional, country and global level.  

Our pay equity statistics are affected by gender representation across our organisation (we employ more men than women) and our pay equity strategy is intrinsically linked to our commitment to enhancing inclusion and diversity. 

Together, these strategic initiatives help us to address any unintended anomalies and provides us a framework that ensures our pay is managed fairly, equitably and appropriately. 

Our WGEA gender pay gap

Rio Tinto participates in country-specific reporting, such as the Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA) in Australia. The WGEA’s methodology differs from our Group-level approach and is disclosed in 4 different ways: 

• Differences in average and median base salary between all male and female employees.
• Differences in average and median total remuneration, including wages, higher duties, superannuation, bonuses, allowances, back pay, workers compensation payments, penalty rates, shift loadings, commissions and other benefits. 

The WGEA reports submissions from over 7,000 Australian employers, with a lag between data submission and disclosure. The current WGEA report reflects 2023/2024 data submitted in 2024. While not directly comparable to our Group-level disclosures due to timing and methodology differences, both provide valuable insights into our fair and equal pay practices. 

Base salary gender pay gap 

Our WGEA average base salary pay gap is 0.5% in favour of women, compared to the mining industry average pay gap of 16.6% in favour of men.  

While we expect to see small shifts year on year, our 2024 outcome reflects a neutral pay gap and reinforces our commitment to fair and equal pay setting. 

Total remuneration gender pay gap 

• Our WGEA average total remuneration pay gap is 7.7% in favour of men, compared to the mining industry average gender pay gap of 19.8% in favour of men.
• Our total remuneration pay gap is largely attributed to the underrepresentation of women in operational roles.
• These operational roles attract a higher set of allowances to compensate for hardship (for example, living and working remotely, payment for additional hours, and working nights, weekends and public holidays), typically between 15% and 25% depending on occupational activities.  
• Around 80% of men in our workforce work onsite, compared with just over 50% of women.
• Our total remuneration gap has narrowed in the past 12 months, as more women were hired to site-based roles.  
• Driving greater female representation in the workforce is one of our strategic priorities and is reflected in our Group Short-Term Incentive Scorecard.
• We remain confident that as we enhance female representation in the workforce, we will continue to further reduce our total remuneration pay gap.