Eligibility

Employers that meet the definition of a ‘relevant employer’ under the Workplace Gender Equality Act 2012 (the Act) must register with the Workplace Gender Equality Agency (the Agency or WGEA) and lodge an annual Gender Equality Report. 

On this page:

  • Are you required to report? 

  • Who is covered by these requirements? 

  • Which employees do I count? 

  • Corporate structures 

  • No longer required to report 

  • Liquidation or receivership 
     

Are you required to report? 

Relevant employers are those that employ 100 or more employees in Australia for 6 months or more of a reporting period. The reporting period is the twelve months from April 1st of the previous year to March 31st of the current year. These months do not need to be consecutive. 

The Act defines a relevant employer as either: 

  • Standalone organisations with a single ABN who employ 100 or more employees, or 

  • A corporate structure (parent organisation, whether employing or not, and any employing subsidiaries) with 100 or more employees in total across all entities. 

 

Who is covered by these requirements? 

The eligibility requirements to lodge an annual Gender Equality Report cover all employers, except for state government public sector employers, and any associated state-owned employers. 

  • The federal government public sector is covered by these requirements, find more information in the Public Sector Reporting guide: Public sector eligibility 

 

Which employees do I count? 

To determine eligibility, you must count all employees that are employed, this includes employees who are: 

  • full-time 

  • part-time 

  • casual 

The only employee types who are not counted are: 

  • independent contractors who are self-employed, and 

  • employees from a recruitment agency placed in your organisation - they are the employees of the recruitment agency, not the host employer.  

 
The Australian Tax Office has compiled information on their website which sets out the differences between an employee and an independent contractor. 

Corporate structures

A corporate structure is defined by majority ownership, with an ultimate parent and one or more subsidiaries considered one ‘relevant employer’ under the Act. This includes global organisations with 100 or more domestic Australian employees in total across all Australian subsidiaries – overseas employees should not be counted to determine eligibility. 

  • If your corporate group employs in total 100 or more employees in Australia – all employing entities must be reported regardless of their individual entity size. 

  • For global corporate groups – only Australian based domestic entities and their employees are counted and reported in the Gender Equality Report. 

  • If your group already reports to WGEA and acquires a new subsidiary during a reporting period, you must include the new subsidiary in your submission for that reporting period. 

Example

A global or domestic corporate structure has five Australian subsidiaries, each employing 20 employees in Australia across the twelve-month reporting period, for a total of 100 employees across all subsidiaries.  

The domestic subsidiaries employ 100 or more employees and must register together (with either a domestic or global ultimate parent) and lodge a Gender Equality Report for all Australian based employees. 

This corporate group must register to report to WGEA because they had 100 or more employees in total for six months or more during the reporting period. 

No longer required to report?

If you are registered to report to WGEA and your employee count drops below 100 in total, you must continue to lodge an annual Gender Equality Report until your employee count drops below 80. 

  • Standalone organisation: the employee total falls below 80 employees. 

  • Corporate group: the entire corporate structure (sum of all employing entities) falls below 80 employees in total. 

Once employee numbers have fallen below 80, please contact us by lodging a support request via the Employer Portal or email us at support@wgea.gov.au to let us know you are no longer a relevant employer.    

Liquidation or receivership

If an employer is in receivership or liquidation, they may still need to comply with their reporting requirements under the Act. 

Under section 4 of the Act, you are still a relevant employer if you employ: 

  • 100 or more employees, or 

  • 80 or more employees (if you have lodged a report in the prior year). 

We will only make exceptions if you have a genuine reason why you cannot report. We may consider: 

  • the likelihood of your organisation dissolving 

  • your organisation’s size and whether you will have fewer than 80 employees after planned retrenchments 

  • the legitimacy of your hardship. 

An organisation in liquidation may continue to meet the definition of a ‘relevant employer’. However, liquidation usually means employees will be dismissed. 

You must confirm with us in writing if your organisation has been liquidated. We will then refer this to our Chief Executive Officer for a decision. 

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