Lorna Jane activewear revealed as having one of the biggest gender pay gaps in the retail industry

A female activewear brand that seeks to “inspire women around the world” has been revealed as having one of retail’s biggest gender pay gaps.

New figures released on Tuesday show Lorna Jane has a pay disparity of 37 per cent — with the median earnings of male employees far exceeding those of women. The gap is among the highest in Australia’s retail sector.

Lawyers representing Lorna Jane told The West Australian the figures failed to fully represent the company, which employs 1382 women and 47 men.

“As one of Australia’s leading women’s activewear manufacturers, Lorna Jane’s retail team, across its network of 101 stores, is 100 per cent female and makes up over 97 per cent of its total workforce,” the letter read.

“As part of Lorna Jane’s commitment to providing flexible employment conditions for its valued team, a very large number of its female staff enjoy being able to work in casual and part-time capacities. In contrast, the vast majority of Lorna Jane’s male employees work in full-time, non-retail roles.

“Failure to fairly and accurately report on the Survey results in this way has significant potential to cause serious — but entirely unjustified — damage to Lorna Jane’s business and, in turn, to its large workforce of predominantly women.”

The statistics shared by the legal team still mean Lorna Jane’s 3 per cent male workforce earns exponentially more than its female employees.

In an interview before the 2016 Federal election, founder Lorna Clarkson told the media that politicians needed to be “brave” and support local businesses.

“It would be great to see … a more supportive and completely unbiased environment for females professionally,” she said.

“As a nation that is a high-cost environment, it is incredibly difficult to compete when many international companies either minimise or pay no tax in Australia.

“Why not create an environment where local business employers and taxpayers are enabled to compete on a like-for-like basis.”

Other seismic pay gaps from female-focussed brands include plus-size retailer City Chic Collective, with a gap of 57 per cent; Fast Future Brands, which includes stores ValleyGirl and Temt (52 per cent), Forever New (51 per cent), and swimwear maker Seafolly (44.5 per cent).

Accessories brands such as Pandora Jewelry (52.3 per cent) and Michael Hill (37 per cent) also had large pay disparity between men and women.

Jewellery chain Lovisa — whose male CEO’s pay packet of $29 million is the second highest on the ASX — had a 26.4 per cent pay gap.

• The full data set is searchable at WGEA’s website