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’.
Executive Summaries and Industry Benchmark Reports can be generated for "corporate groups", as well as for subsidiary companies (i.e. companies within a corporate group with an individual ABN) that report 80 or more employees in the Workplace Profile.
What is required of employers?
- 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. - Review your documents. If you have questions about your gender pay gap, refer to our six actions to take to check your GPG guide.
- Share your documents with your CEO or equivalent, advising them that they will need to share this with the governing body or board.
- Share your Executive Summary (or summaries) and Industry Benchmark Report(s) with your board or 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 2023-24 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. An individual Employer Statement can be provided for each "corporate group" and subsidiary company.
- OPTIONAL - Read our publishing gender pay gaps webpage if you have questions about when and how WGEA will publish gender pay gaps.
Frequently asked questions
Industry Benchmark Report
Q - When will I receive my Industry Benchmark Report(s)?
Industry Benchmark Report(s) can be downloaded from December. 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.
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 public/private companies?
Not-for-profit organisations may be compared based on their industry classification and size.
Q - Which entities are included in the Benchmark Report?
Industry Benchmark Report(s) contain data for all employees from the organisations detailed on the front page of the document — for corporate group reports, this will include a range of subsidiary companies (i.e. companies with individual ABNs).
Board/Governing body review
Q - Do we need to share the Executive Summary as well as the Industry Benchmark Report to the governing body?
The Executive Summary (or summaries) and Industry Benchmark Report(s) all need to be shared with the governing body. This is a requirement for an employer to be compliant with the relevant legislation.
Q - Are we required to share the report that has already been submitted (22-23) or the next report produced (23-24)?
You are required to share the Executive Summary (or summaries) and Industry Benchmark Report(s) with your governing body, generated from the data you submitted in the 2023-2024 reporting period.
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 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 2023-24 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 by 20 February 2024 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.
Q - Is the Employer Statement compulsory?
The Employer Statement is not compulsory. However, it is recommended to provide context to your gender pay gap.
Q - Will there be a template of the Employer Statement provided?
Guidance on developing an Employer Statement is available on the WGEA website. A template will not be provided.
Q - What should be included in the Employer Statement?
Guidance on developing an Employer Statement is available on the WGEA website.
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.
Executive Summary and Industry Benchmark Report webinar
View the webinar recording to find out more about the sections of the Executive Summary and the Industry Benchmark Report.