Executive Summary and Industry Benchmark Report

New legislation requires employers to provide their WGEA Executive Summary (or summaries) and Industry Benchmark Report(s) to their board or governing body. Employers can provide the Executive Summary to the board alone, or together with the Industry Benchmark Report as soon as reasonably practical.

• The Executive Summary (or summaries) sets out the key results from your submission to the WGEA’s annual Gender Equality Reporting.
• The Industry Benchmark Report(s) compares your results to the results of other organisations in an ‘Industry Comparison Group’.

The Executive Summary can be generated for any organisation (with an individual ABN) that report 80 or more employees in the Workplace Profile.

• A corporate group version (with gender pay gaps for the entire group) will be available to generate and download later in 2024 - corporate group employers will be notified by email when the report is ready to generate and download.

Industry Benchmark Report can only be generated for any organisation (with an individual ABN) that received an Executive Summary.

1. Generate and download your Executive Summary (or summaries) and Industry Benchmark Report(s) in the Data and Insights tab of the Portal under 'Reports'. 
   Please note that the generation may take up to 24 hours.
2. Review your documents. If you have questions about your gender pay gap, refer to our six actions to take to check your GPG guide.
3. Share your documents with your CEO or equivalent, advising them that they will need to share this with the governing body or board.
4. CEO/equivalent: Share your Executive Summary (or summaries) and Industry Benchmark Report(s) with your governing body.
   Note that you will need to indicate that you have complied with the legislative requirement to provide reports to the governing body in the 2024-25 Questionnaire.

OPTIONAL - Write an Employer Statement to give context to your gender pay gap(s) when WGEA publishes it next year.

• Refer to our Gender Pay Gap Employer Statement Guide for more information. 
• Read our publishing gender pay gaps webpage if you have questions about when and how WGEA will publish gender pay gaps.  

Executive Summary

Q - Why has the Executive Summary replaced the previous 'reporting overview'?

Both documents contained relatively the same datapoints, in an effort to reduce the number of documents an employer handles a decision was taken to retire the reporting overview and move up the availability of the Executive Summary

Q - Will we receive a corporate group version of the Executive Summary?

Yes, corporate group employers reporting to WGEA will receive later in the year a corporate group version of this report with gender pay gap figures.

• The report will be launched later in 2024 -  employers will be advised via email when it is ready to generate and download.

Q - Why am I receiving an Executive Summary for any ABN that reported 80-100+ employees?

Executive Summaries provide employers with the gender pay gap information the Agency will publish online ahead of that publication.

• Individual ABNs that report 80-100+ employees in their own right will have ABN-level data published on the WGEA Data Explorer.

From 2024 there are changes to the publication of corporate group information, changes are detailed here.

 

Industry Benchmark Report

Q - When will I receive my Industry Benchmark Report(s)?

Industry Benchmark Report(s) can be downloaded from approximately November-December to March of the following year.

• Employers are notified via email when the report is available

• There can be delays in the generation of up to 24 hours during peak times.

Q - Can I customise the Industry Benchmark Report to compare to a specific industry?

Industry Benchmark Reports are based on the primary Australian and New Zealand Standard Industrial Classification (ANZSIC) industry class or division and the total employee count reported by the employer for that specific ABN.

• When starting the submission an industry is confirmed for the specific ABN

• The employee size of the company (used to match with similar competitors) is taken from the data reported for this ABN in the Workplace Profile

To explore data for other industries and make further custom comparisons, please use the Data Explorer on WGEA’s website.

Q - Will Not for Profit organisations be compared to other private companies?

Not-for-profit organisations are compared based on their industry classification and size.

Q - Which employees are included in the Benchmark Report?

All employees reported in the workplace profile for the specific ABN of the organisation are included.

• Gender X employees are not included in the data for any Benchmarking Report

 

Governing body review

Q - Does the CEO/equivalent need to share the Executive Summary as well as the Industry Benchmark Report with the governing body?

The CEO/equivalent is required to share the Executive Summary (or summaries) and Industry Benchmark Report(s) with the relevant governing body.

• This is a requirement for an employer to be compliant with the relevant legislation.

Q - When do we need to share the two reports with the governing body?

As soon as practicable after being notified that you can generate and download the Industry Benchmark Report(s) at the end of the year.

Q - Do we need to share both reports at the same time?

Yes, you must share both reports at the same time with your governing body. 

Q - Do we provide the Executive Summary and Industry Benchmark Report as is?

Yes. The two documents are not editable.

Q - Do we need to provide evidence of sharing with the governing body?

You must declare that you have shared the Industry Benchmark Report with your board in the 2024-25 Questionnaire.

Q - What if the governing body is not in Australia?

The Executive Summary and Industry Benchmark Report both need to be shared with the governing body, regardless of the board’s location.

 

Employer Statement (voluntary)

Q - When is the Employer Statement due?

A URL web address to your voluntary Employer Statement should be added to the Data & Insights section of the Portal before February 202 to ensure your Statement is accessible when WGEA first publishes employer gender pay gaps. 

• You can upload the hyperlink to your Statement at any time after this date, it will be added to the Data Explorer at regular update intervals.

• The exact date in February 2025 for employer statements will be confirmed in late Q4 2024

Q - Is the Employer Statement compulsory?

The Employer Statement is not compulsory. However, it is recommended employers provide context to your gender pay gap figures or indicate the actions being taken to address gender equality more broadly.

Q - Will there be a template of the Employer Statement provided and what should be on it?

Guidance on developing an Employer Statement is available on the WGEA website.

• A template will not be provided - statements are unique and contextual to the employer providing further information for public consumption.

 

Accessibility

Q - Will WGEA produce an accessible report so that people with disability can access this data?

WGEA is currently exploring how it might improve the accessibility of reports.