As of 2024, women still earn 16% less than men on average despite attempts to narrow the gap. According to statistics provided by the Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA), 50% of all employers have a gender pay gap of over 9.1% in Australia. On 30 March 2023, Parliament passed the Workplace Gender Equality Amendment (closing the Gender Pay Gap) Bill 2023. The reforms in the Bill seek to amend the Workplace Gender Equality Act 2012 (Cth) (Act) with the aim of improving transparency, accountability and to accelerate progress on gender equality in workplaces. These reforms will apply to private sector employers and Commonwealth public sector organizations with 100 or more employees.

Key Changes for Employers

Gathering additional insights to address knowledge gaps

From 1 April 2024, mandatory reporting is enforced on all employers, where they are required to report workforce data on:

Employee age,
Primary workplace location, and
CEO, Head of Business and Casual Manager remuneration.

Mandatory reporting is also required on sexual harassment, harassment on the ground of sex or discrimination starting from 1 April 2024.

The new legislation also requires employers to provide their WGEA Executive Summary and Industry Benchmark Report to their Board.

Gender Equality Standard to bridge the “action gap”

From 2024, large organizations (500 or more employees) will be required to have policies or strategies for each of the six gender equality indicators, namely:

gender composition of the workforce;
gender composition of governing bodies;
equal remuneration between women and men;
availability and utility of employment terms, flexible working arrangements, and support for family and caring responsibilities;
consultation with employees on gender equality in the workplace;
sexual harassment, harassment on the ground of sec or discrimination.

This requirement applies to each entity that have 500 or more employees in their own right, even if they are under the same organisation.

Ensure publication of gender pay gaps of individual employers

As per the new regulations, WGEA will publish private sector and employer gender pay gaps and Commonwealth public sector gender pay gap.

The Next Step

The WGEA will publish figures of the employment gender pay gaps annually, taking note that the private sector and public sector organisations have different reporting timelines. The average gender pay gap will be assessed by calculating the difference between the total male remuneration, divided by the number of males in the organisation, and the total female remuneration, divided by the number of females in the organisation.

The reform represents a significant step forward for the future pay of equity for women, and encourages broader discussion around wage transparency. It decisively assigns the responsibility on employers to scrutinise their workforce more closely to ensure that they are keeping up with industry standards. While there is still a long way to go in reducing gender pay gap, it is still a step in the right direction by motivating companies to take initiatives and implement proactive strategies to address the root cause of the problem.

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This blog post provides general information and is not intended as legal advice. It may not be complete or up-to-date. For specific legal advice, please consult a qualified lawyer.