GSK & ViiV Healthcare Australia Gender Pay Gap Explanatory Statement - 2025

Fair pay is a key element of the GSK and ViiV Healthcare culture. We have strong systems in place to ensure that pay practices in all the countries we operate reflect this, ensuring our people receive fair and equitable pay, reflecting industry benchmarks, skills, performance and experience.

We also support the increased transparency that comes through the publishing of company gender pay gap data in support of pay equity. We are pleased with the progress we have made in the last twelve months which has seen our gender pay gap continue to reduce so that it is now in the neutral zone on median measures and reducing towards the neutral zone on average measures. We have achieved gender balance in our Australian Leadership Team and amongst all management roles which give us confidence that this balance will be sustainable into the future.

The 2023/24 reporting period which has been published in March 2025 includes all employees employed and paid in Australia across commercial, medical, business partner functions and R&D roles.

In 2025, WGEA have expanded the data published for all Australian employers. For GSK that means there are two data sets available – our corporate group “Glaxosmithkline Holdings” which includes GSK Australia and ViiV Healthcare Australia employees, and subsidiary “Glaxosmithkline Australia” which includes only GSK Australia employees.

This statement will focus on the results for our corporate group, which were reported in 2024 to allow for comparison.

There is no separate report for ViiV Healthcare Australia having fewer than one hundred employees in Australia.

What is the difference between Gender Pay and Equal Pay?

“Gender Pay” is very different from “Equal Pay”. Although these terms sound similar, they are often confused, so it is very important to distinguish them.

“Equal Pay” means paying people similarly for the same work, considering factors like experience, performance, and market forces. We achieve this through robust HR practices using data to set appropriate salaries. Our consistent use of salary benchmarks ensures fair compensation without considering individual characteristics such as gender.

“Gender Pay” is calculated as the difference between the rate of pay of male employees and that of female employees. It is expressed as a percentage of the rate of pay of male employees which is referred to as the gender pay gap. It is a measure across all our jobs in Australia, not of the difference in pay between men and women doing the same job. Gender pay gap analysis looks across the workforce without regard for the specific roles, experience, performance or grade levels of employees. 

The gender pay gap at GSK and ViiV Healthcare Australia for the 2023-24 reporting period is primarily attributed to differences in representation across various levels of the organisation. While there is significant representation of women at senior, mid-management, and professional levels, there is also a majority of women in the lower-paid quartiles.

We have made noteworthy progress in achieving gender balance in senior roles, which has contributed to the narrowing gender pay gaps. As these newer leaders gain experience and demonstrate performance, their remuneration will continue to be delivered in a manner consistent with GSK’s principles around fair pay, pay progression and salary management.

These two factors together largely explain the variation between the average and median figures, as the average is influenced more significantly by extremes in the top and bottom pay quartiles.

Our results explained for 2023/24 reporting period – Corporate Group data.

A positive data point below indicates a gender pay gap in favour of men.

Gender Pay Gap over time – Median Measures

The median data set allows for a comparison over a longer period, and this shows a steady decline in our gender pay gap including a significant decline since the last reporting period of 6.7% points on total remuneration and 1.6% points on base salary.  A median total remuneration gender pay gap of 1.2% is within the neutral zone of +/- 5% as described by WGEA as indicating good practices.

Gender Pay Gap – Average Data

In this most recent reporting period, WGEA have published the average total remuneration and average base salary measures in addition to the median data point which were published in 2024. Since the last reporting period, our data shows a reduction in our gender pay gap on average total remuneration of 0.8% points from 12.5% to 11.7% and 0.5% points on average base salary from 10.1% to 9.6%, both of which are significantly lower than the respective overall gaps for All Australian Companies.  This change shows continued progress on our objective towards the “neutral zone” on averages measures.

Key Management Personnel, Managers and Workforce Composition trends

Since the last reporting period, the composition of GSK Australia has changed with the exit of all staff related to manufacturing at our Boronia site. With this change we have defined the Key Management Personnel grouping at GSK as set out by WGEA as those who “have authority and responsibility for planning, directing and controlling the activities of an entity, directly or indirectly” which describes the Australian Leadership Team.

In the most recent reporting period, we remain within the ‘neutral zone’ when it comes to overall gender balance of managers whilst our non-management population remains steady at 65% female.

GSK Australia Gender Pay Gap – Progress Report & Key Priorities for 2025

We remain committed to taking meaningful actions to further reduce the gender pay gap in GSK and ViiV Healthcare Australia.

We regularly review pay equity at various stages of the employment cycle (e.g. at hire, during the performance and reward process, and market reviews) making adjustments if necessary, through our compensation processes. Our GSK Reward principles include a commitment to ensure pay practices are inclusive and not discriminatory, and we take this very seriously.

Since the last reporting period we have:

• Completed competitive selection processes from which the top candidates were from our internal succession pipeline into Australian Leadership Team. This has contributed to an improvement in the overall gender balance of that team.
• Completed a review of our annual pay review process to ensure gender balance overall and identified no concerns or trends suggested any bias or disadvantage.

Additional tactics in place to respond to our gender pay gap positioning.

• Continue to ensure that our manager practice and culture actively supports key policies that help employees manage work and home responsibilities, notably our Parental Leave Policy & Care of a Family Member Leave Policy underpinned by trusted relationships between managers and their teams.
• To ensure we support and encourage an inclusive culture through the company and are respectful of our operating environment, we continue to work closely with our key employee resource groups including the Australian Women in Leadership (WLI) group, SPECTRUM (LGBTQI+ inclusion), EMBRACE (race and ethnicity inclusion) and our engagement with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.