Gender Equality at BASF

BASF's commitment to gender equality

Overview of BASF Australia

At BASF we create chemistry for a sustainable future. BASF has been active in Australia for more than 100 years and today serves key industries in the agriculture, coatings, manufacturing and mining sectors. As of the end of 2023 BASF Australia Ltd had 300 employees and operates 5 production sites.

Background

On Tuesday 27 February 2024, the Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA) for the first time publicly released information regarding median gender pay gaps and average remuneration by gender per quartile for private sector organisations with 100 employees or more. This included the gender pay gaps for BASF Australia.

 The data WGEA published does not cover equal pay for like-for-like or comparable roles within our organisation. Being paid the same for the same or similar work regardless of gender has been a legal requirement since 1969. This is tracked and regularly reviewed by our Human Resources team, with necessary salary adjustments made when disparities arise. The gender pay gap data that WGEA published are aggregate measures of progress towards gender equality at an organisation, sector and national level. 

Why closing the gender pay gap is important to BASF Australia

BASF Australia has historically placed more importance on hiring for experience over potential and skill, resulting in an overrepresentation of men in technical, operational and leadership roles.

In 2017 with the overall representation of women at 24% we acknowledged the need and value in addressing the imbalance and embarked on a plan to achieve gender equality. 

In 2024 our overall representation of women is 35% and women perform 34% of our leadership positions. 

Accessing more diverse talent has had a significantly positive impact on our organisation, customers, partners and communities.  

Increasing the representation of women has lowered our organisation wide average gender pay gap over time to 2.4% at base salary level and 5.9% at average total remuneration level as calculated by WGEA.   

Gender representation is just one aspect that contributes to gender equality.   We know from experience that workforce strategies that enable people to thrive regardless of gender, have the impact of creating safe and rewarding experiences that everyone can benefit from.

Closing the gender pay gap is the right thing to do. It benefits society and leads to economic growth through the increased participation of women and fairer distribution of caring responsibilities.  

BASF Australia's commitment to achieving gender equality

We are committed to reaching 40% overall representation of women and reducing the average mean total remuneration pay gap to less than 1% by 2026.

We will do this by continuing to increase the representation of women in traditionally male dominated roles, at senior levels and leadership positions and removing the remaining barriers in our workplace that prevent the full participation of all people, regardless of gender.