What you need to know: Expansion of WGEA pay gap reporting in Australia

The Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA) and pay gap data reporting in Australia

For over a decade, many Australian employers reported workforce composition and pay data to the Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA). In March 2023, the nation reformed the Workplace Gender Equality Act 2012 by passing the Workplace Gender Equality Amendment (Closing the Gender Pay Gap) Bill 2023, intended to accelerate the slow pace of pay equity progress by promoting transparency and accountability.

New requirements were phased in November 2023, as employers were provided with a WGEA Executive Summary and Industry Benchmark Report that they were required to share with their board. This document included the employer’s pay gap and gender equality data and a comparison to other organizations in the same industry.

The WGEA published individual employer pay gaps for the first time in early 2024. Also that year, it expanded its annual reporting requirements to include data on employee age and workplace location, CEO and management salaries, and the organization’s prevention of and response to sexual harassment and discrimination. Organizations with 500 or more employees were required to have a policy or strategy for six gender equality indicators.

In early 2025, the WGEA published pay gap data from over 7,400 employers. According to those reports, 72% of those employers had a pay gap of over 5% that favors men.

Who do these pay gap reporting requirements apply to?

The law applies to all private-sector employers and Commonwealth public sector employers with 100+ employees. Employers with 500 or more employees are subject to special requirements.

What are the key requirements of WGEA’s expanded pay gap reporting?

WGEA collects the required information through its official website, with templates available to help employers prepare the information. There are three major reporting steps:

(1) Employer questionnaire. This includes information on the organization’s policies, strategies, and actions related to gender equality.

(2) Workforce management statistics, including the number of employees who:

• Were promoted
• Were promoted from non-manager to manager 
• Were appointed 
• Voluntarily resigned
• Were on parental leave
• Ceased employment before returning from parental leave

(3) Workplace profile. Required information is collected as a snapshot, with all data taken from one day during the reporting period. This step focuses on workforce composition, salary data, and total remuneration data.

Large employers (500 or more employees) also need a policy/strategy in place for the six Gender Equality Indicators. These are: 

• Gender composition of the workforce.
• Gender composition of governing bodies.
• Equal remuneration between women and men.
• Availability and utility of employment terms, conditions and practices relating to flexible work arrangements and work arrangements for employees with family/caring responsibilities.
• Consultation with employees on issues concerning gender equality in the workplace.
• Sexual harassment, harassment on the ground of sex or discrimination.

Starting in 2026, they also must show progress towards gender equality. This will involve picking three targets from 19 possible options, like implementing gender equality initiatives and reducing the pay gap.

The reporting window is open between April 1 and May 31 of each year. Note that any data quality issues must be resolved during this period.

What happens after an employer lodges its report?

The WGEA analyzes the data, then publishes national, industry-level, and employer-level metrics on its Data Explorer site. It also creates and publishes an annual report and a Gender Equality Scorecard that tracks year-over-year changes. Publication takes place early in the year following data collection, i.e., 2024-2025 data is published in early 2026. 

After an organization submits its data, it can create an Employer Statement to accompany the eventual publication. This statement can give context for the pay gap findings and outline the organization’s planned remediation actions. While not mandatory, it’s recommended by both the WGEA and some pay equity experts. The submission window for Employer Statements is open from February 3rd through 24th of each year.  

Next steps for employers

After an employer lodges its report, it will be able to generate and download public reports, which recap the information submitted to WGEA, as well as an Executive Summary. An Industry Benchmark Report will be available for download about 2-3 months after the reporting period ends.

Internal communications

WGEA requires organizations to notify their employees, employee groups, and shareholders once their report has been lodged. Employees and employee groups also need to be given the opportunity to view and comment on the public reports, and the CEO must share the Executive Summary and Industry Benchmark Report with the organization’s governing body.

The Employer Statement is recommended for good reason: if the organization does have a pay gap, the statement is an opportunity to demonstrate a commitment to pay equity and engage stakeholders. For example, even though you are reporting a pay gap, perhaps you have made progress from the previous year. Or you could highlight ongoing initiatives or future plans oriented towards pay equity.

External communications

Your organization may discuss this information publicly, for example on a webpage or in a press release. We’ve talked previously about best practices for external communications, and two are particularly relevant here:

• Use good data. For instance, you could talk about where the pay gap originates within the company and what that implies. If it primarily comes from one department, the scope of the problem is different than if the pay gap crosses all departments.
• Focus on your framing. How does this year’s WGEA data articulate with your organization’s progress towards its corporate social responsibility (CSR) goals? If a pay gap was identified, how does the organization plan to address it and how will that tie into those larger goals?

Remediation actions

If you’ve reported a pay gap (especially one of over 5%) to WGEA, consider a pay equity analysis. This process, supported by pay equity software like PayAnalytics by beqom, will help you see what parts of your pay structure need attention and how much it might cost to close or decrease the gap. This is done through targeted raises. Based on organizational priorities, some employers close their gap completely and quickly, while others find it better to do a series of corrective actions over a couple years. PayAnalytics by beqom makes tailored recommendations to close the pay gap, taking your desired budget, time horizon, and degree of closure into consideration.

How PayAnalytics can help with pay gap reporting in Australia

Designed by data scientists and built for the real world, the PayAnalytics solution features a user-friendly interface and requires minimal setup time. Once it has helped you close your pay gap, the Compensation Assistant feature advises you on future salary decisions to help make sure that the gap never reappears.

Australia’s WGEA pay gap reporting reforms are part of a global shift in pay equity requirements: more nations worldwide are implementing pay equity reporting requirements for organizations of all sizes. And increasingly, employees are attracted to organizations that demonstrate a commitment to pay equity. So whether you’ve been on your pay equity journey for a while or are just getting started, there’s never been a better time to take action. PayAnalytics is ready to help.

Ready to learn more about how you can achieve pay equity?