Gender equality at AMSA

A diverse and inclusive workplace is essential to achieving excellence in maritime safety. At AMSA, we are committed to creating an environment where all employees, regardless of gender, feel valued, respected and empowered to contribute to our mission of ‘safe and clean seas, saving lives’.  

It is clear that a gender-based disadvantage still exists in our organisation. We are working hard to address it.

Understanding our pay gap

At AMSA, women currently outnumber men in lower paid, generalist and support roles. There are more men in higher paid and technical roles. The areas of our organisation with the biggest gender pay gap include highly technical roles.  

Some technical roles at AMSA currently require extensive seafaring experience and tertiary qualifications. This makes increasing female representation in those roles challenging because: 

• women only make up about 1.2% of the global seafaring workforce, with most in the cruise ship industry (International Maritime Organization’s (IMO) Global Seafaring Report); and
• low staff turnover in areas at AMSA with larger gender pay gaps add to this issue. Technical roles average 8 to 10 years of service, while other areas average 6 years. 

Although we recognise there are historical factors that influence our gender pay gap, there are other challenges that can be tackled with specific actions. 

Taking action

We are dedicated to promoting equity, diversity and inclusion at all levels of our organisation. Our action plan has a significant focus on how we recruit and support our workforce to be more inclusive of women, targeting approaches to address division-specific challenges.  

We are working on extending our Gender Equity Action Plan 2022 - 2027, implementing initiatives that facilitate long-term change to our gender pay gap. This includes: 

• challenging assumptions around qualifications and experience required to be successful in a role so we can broaden our talent pools 
• exploring opportunities to create pathways for women into more senior roles through tailored development programs, industry partnerships and acting opportunities 
• doing more to ensure our recruitment, retention, and promotion practices are free from bias to provide equal opportunities for all genders 
• taking an ‘if not, why not?’ approach to flexible work to support work-life balance and acknowledge the diverse needs of our employees
• classifying parental leave as primary and secondary, allowing new parents of any gender fair access 
• ensuring we use simple alternatives to gendered language to include women and the LGBTIQA+ community in our workplace and industry. For example, we use ‘crewing’ instead of ‘manning’ 
• actively encouraging women to join the maritime sector by providing scholarships in partnership with the Australian Maritime College.

Ongoing commitment to inclusivity

We are constantly evolving. We continually review and refine our policies to ensure they meet the diverse needs of our workforce. 

AMSA leadership is demonstrating a commitment to diversity and to leading this work. 

By championing gender inclusion and addressing structural pay gaps, AMSA is committed to reducing our gender pay gap.

Find out more

• Gender Equity Action Plan 2022 - 2027
• Diversity and inclusion strategy 2023 - 27
• Our culture