Major Australian technology companies Canva and NextDC saw their gender pay gaps more than double in the last financial year – as did the local arm of international data giant Amazon Web Services (AWS), according to new data released on Tuesday.
The gender pay gap does not compare pay rates for men and women working in the same roles, but measures the difference between the average earnings of men and women within an employer or industry.
Data centre operator NextDC had the highest gender pay gap for an Australian-founded information technology company in the 2024-25 financial year, data from the government’s Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA) showed.
While NextDC reported a gender pay gap of 22.1 per cent in favour of men a year earlier, that has more than doubled to 45 per cent, according to the WGEA data.
The statistics showed 28 per cent of NextDC workforce consisted of women, but only 23 per cent earned in the company’s top quartile, where the average pay was $581,000 per annum.
Around 33 per cent of the workforce in the firm’s lower-middle and lowest quartiles were women, where total remuneration averaged between $111,000 and $86,000.
The gender pay gap in NextDC’s average base salary shrunk from 20.4 per cent to 18.3 per cent.
Software giant Canva also saw its gender pay gap more than double from 12.7 per cent in 2023-24 to 27.1 per cent in 2024-25, while the gender pay gap for its average base salary remained steady at 11.7 per cent.
While 38 per cent of Canva’s workforce consisted of women, its top quartile of earners – where the average remuneration was $580,000 – included 26 per cent women.
The company’s lowest quartile, in which pay averaged $130,000, consisted of 55 per cent women.
Canva's chief people officer, Jennie Rogerson, told Information Age the company paid men and women in the same roles equally, but its sudden gender pay gap increase was "driven by two factors that are separate from how we make pay decisions".
The first was that most of Canva's teams worked in technical roles "where women remain underrepresented across the industry and where compensation is typically higher", Rogerson said.
"We continue to invest in inclusive hiring, strong pay practices, career development pathways, and early talent programs to help improve representation over time," she said.
The second factor involved employees taking part in a secondary share sale in 2024, which increased some people's incomes for that financial year, Rogerson added.
"In 2024, more men than women chose to participate in the sale, which impacted these figures," she said.
The gender pay gap of Australian marketplace platform Freelancer increased slightly from 35.9 per cent to 37.8 per cent in the new round of data, but its top quartile of earners – with an average remuneration of $269,000 – included 0 per cent women, according to the data.
NextDC and Freelancer were contacted for comment.
Other prominent Australian technology companies which saw their gender pay gaps increase included Atlassian, which rose from 10.5 per cent to 12.5 per cent; and Xero, which rose from 10.9 per cent to 12.2 per cent.
The likes of Afterpay, WiseTech Global, Macquarie Technology Group, and TechnologyOne saw their gender pay gaps reduce slightly.
Some international tech firms see pay gaps widen
Several Australian arms of international technology companies also saw their gender pay gaps increase in the latest data.
The local arm of Amazon’s data and cloud division AWS saw its gender pay gap more than double from 7 per cent to 14.7 per cent in the 2024-25 financial year.
The company reported its Australian workforce consisted of 29 per cent women, who made up 42 per cent of its lowest quartile of earners at an average of $158,000 per annum.
The Australian arm of American IT company Iron Mountain saw its gender pay gap increase from 40.4 per cent to 48.2 per cent.
While 59 per cent of its workforce consisted of women, only 35 per cent earned in its top quartile, where the average total remuneration was $472,000.
The company’s local services arm saw its gender pay gap shrink slightly to 25.6 per cent in 2024-25.
The local arm of American data infrastructure company NetApp reported an increase in its gender pay gap from 26.9 per cent to 34.1 per cent, as well as a 5 per cent increase in the gender pay gap of its average base salary.
The firm reported 18 per cent of its Australian workers were women, but only 5 per cent earned in its top quartile where remuneration averaged around $445,000.
Mark Fioretto, area vice president and managing director for NetApp in Australia and New Zealand, said the company has "an active focus on pay equity and strives to improve continuously".
"NetApp remains committed to fostering an inclusive workplace where all employees feel valued and supported," he said in a statement.
The Australian arm of American IT services firm BMC Software also saw an increase in its gender pay gap from 27 per cent to 31.4 per cent.
While 19 per cent of its workforce consisted of women, 8 per cent earned in its top quartile where remuneration averaged $715,000.
The Australian arms of AWS and Iron Mountain were contacted for comment.
Australia's gender pay gap narrows overall
Australia’s overall gender pay gap shrunk by 0.9 percentage points to 11.2 per cent in the 2024-25 financial year, according to WGEA.
The agency’s data spans 10,500 Australian employers, which employ almost 5.9 million local workers.
Companies in the medical, mining, airline, sport, and fashion industries were among those with the largest gender pay gaps in the most recent data.
Overall, men were still 1.8 times more likely than women to be in the upper quartile of earners at their employer, on an average toal remuneration of $221,000.
WGEA CEO Mary Wooldridge said more than half of employers still had a gender pay gap larger than 11.2 per cent in favour of men, and employers in high-paying and male-dominated industries were likely to have wider gaps.
“The fact that men are nearly twice as likely as women to be in the highest paid roles and that women still dominate the lowest paid roles should offer a reality check for anyone who thinks Australia has achieved equality in the workplace,” Wooldridge said.
Australia passed landmark workplace gender equality laws in 2025, which mean Australian companies with 500 or more employees have to achieve or improve on measurable targets relating to gender equality, including the gender pay gap.
