Publicis Sapient remains Australia’s highest-paying agency
The latest data from the Workplace Gender Equality Agency did not find much equality
Publicis Sapient has once again topped Australian agency pay rankings, with its average salary rising 27% last year to $214,000 in 2024–25.
Data from the Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA) showed that the average pay across 22 advertising and media agencies was $145,136. Publicis’ technology arm led the sector, followed by AKQA at $166,000 and TBWA Sydney at $163,000.
Although it does not capture the full picture of Australia’s advertising scene, the data highlights a top 10 dominated by traditionally creative agencies, including the now-defunct DDB Sydney, Publicis Communications, which includes Leo Australia and Saatchi & Saatchi, and Ogilvy.
The WGEA analysis covered 1,850 corporate entities legally required to employ 100 or more people in Australia and submit an annual Gender Equality Report.
Across Australia, the report found that the average gender pay gap is 11.2%, down 0.9 percentage points from the previous year. In other words, women earn an average of 88.8 cents for every dollar earned by men.
In comparison, the agencies included in the data (Mumbrella was able to locate 22) have slightly bigger gaps on average (14%).
The WGEA lists WPP-owned VML as having the largest gender average pay gap among the 22 agencies ranked, at 23.1%, followed by Publicis Communications, which includes the agencies Saatchi & Saatchi and Leo Australia, with 22.5%.
TBWA Sydney ranks third with a 22.3% gap, while Medium Rare and Ogilvy round out the top five with 22.2% and 21.4%, respectively.
At the other end of the spectrum, Initiative Media emerged as the top agency for gender parity, followed by Dentsu and the now-defunct WPP production house Hogarth.
In contrast to its sister office, TBWA Melbourne reported a significantly lower gender pay gap of 5.3%.
