This morning the Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA) published private sector employer gender pay gaps in accordance with recent legislative reforms.
Australian private sector employers with 100 or more employees must report to the Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA) on six Gender Equality Indicators each year by law.
The gender equality indicators are:
- gender composition of the workforce
- gender composition of governing bodies of relevant employers
- equal remuneration between women and men
- availability and utility of employment terms, conditions and practices relating to flexible working arrangements for employees and working arrangements supporting employees with family or caring responsibilities
- consultation with employees on issues concerning gender equality in the workplace
- any other matters specified by the Minister: sex-based harassment and discrimination
Background
In March 2023, the Workplace Gender Equality Amendment (Closing the Gender Pay Gap) Bill 2023 (the Bill) was passed. Colloquially termed the WGEA reform package, the significant reforms aim to ‘improve transparency, accountability and motivate action to accelerate progress on gender equality in the workplace’. They do so by imposing mandatory reporting on workplace data.
WGEA is an Australian Government statutory agency created by the Workplace Gender Equality Act 2012 (WGE Act). In 2021, as part of its published review of the WGE Act, it made 10 recommendations to accelerate change for workplace gender equality. The WGEA reform package delivers either in full, or in part, six of the 10 recommendations. These recommendations seek to address the existing gaps in the WGEA dataset to ensure the true state of gender equality (or inequality) is being measured.
Who do these reforms apply to?
The WGEA reform package applies to organisations already required to report annually to WGEA. This includes:
- private sector employers; and
- Commonwealth public sector organisations,
with 100 or more employees.
What are the key changes?
Under the new legislation, employers must satisfy the below requirements by the following key deadlines:
What’s changing? | When will it happen? |
Employers must share their WGEA Executive Summary and Industry Benchmark Report with their Board | From November 2023 |
WGEA will publish private sector employer gender pay gaps | 27 February 2024 |
Employers must provide additional information on employees including age, primary workplace, location, CEO, head of business and casual manager remuneration | From April 2024 |
Reporting on sexual harassment, harassment on the ground of sex or discrimination will be mandatory | From April 2024 |
Employers with 500 or more staff must have a policy or strategy for each of the six gender equality indicators | From April 2024 |
WGEA will publish Commonwealth public sector gender pay gaps | From late 2024/early 2025 |
How to achieve ongoing compliance
Employers who:
- fail to comply with the new obligations; and/or
- provide data which evidences a gender pay gap amongst their workforce,
will be publicly named on the WGEA list of non-compliant employers.
To avoid this, we recommend employers:
- assess whether their organisation has adequate systems in place to accurately record and report the information required by WGEA;
- ensure their organisation understands the reporting requirements to avoid the risk of being publicly named on the WGEA list of non-compliant employers;
- take meaningful action to minimise any gender pay gaps within their organisation; and
- review their equity, diversity and inclusion policies to ensure they are up to date and accurately reflect the organisation’s commitment to such issues.
Please contact us if you would like assistance with any of your reporting obligations or gender pay initiatives and/or policies generally.
