For more detailed information and a step-by-step process on how to report, please refer to the sections of the public sector reporting guide.
1. General Questions
When is the reporting submission period?
The submission period for Commonwealth public sector gender equality reporting is from 1 September to 31 October 2023. See all key dates below
How do I access the WGEA portal?
The WGEA Portal can be accessed at https://client-portal.wgea.gov.au/s/. To access the Portal and submit data, a person from your organisation will need to have a digital identity (such as a myGovID). WGEA cannot assist or resolve any issues with the setup or authorisation of digital identity credentials for an individual. Visit our Public Sector Reporting Guide for a more detailed explanation on login access.
How do I change our login if the person who set it up has now left?
If your reporting contact has changed, the new contact will be required to set up a digital identity and seek authorisation from the Relationship Authorisation Manager (RAM) in your workplace to report on your agency’s behalf. Reporting contacts can be updated from within the Portal in the ‘Organisation’ tab.
- A new report contact is added when they login with a myGovID for the first time.
- An old report contact can be removed by removing the contact relationship type (e.g. report contact) before deactivating.
See more information about login access.
What do I need to complete for reporting?
Public sector gender equality reporting requires employers to complete the:
- Questionnaire outlining an employer’s policies, strategies and actions on gender equality
- Workforce management statistics (WMS) spreadsheet outlining employee movements during the reporting period (1 January – 31 December 2022).
- Workplace profile (WPP) outlining an employer’s workforce composition, salaries and remuneration.
Note: The WMS and WPP process will be altered if you are an APS agency and you have agreed to have the APSC bulk upload your workplace profile information (see below).
If you would like to prepare your data before the reporting submission period opens, templates for the Workplace Profile (WPP) and Workforce Management Statistics (WMS) are available on WGEA’s Public Sector Reporting Guide. An offline version of the Questionnaire is also available to help you coordinate responses prior to completing the questionnaire in webform via the Portal.
What do I need to upload if I am using the APSC transfer of employee data to WGEA?
If you are an APS agency and have registered for the APSC bulk upload of your employee data, you do not need to upload your own WPP file. This process will happen automatically in August 2023. Employers will not need to communicate with the APSC to complete this step. In addition to the APSC bulk upload of Workplace Profile data, you will only need to complete questions 5 to 7 of the WMS section.
Can I edit our report after I’ve submitted it?
- You will be able to make edits to your report for 28 days after you submit.
- If you make edits, you will be required to get approval, complete the declarations, and re-submit before your 28-day change period ends.
- You cannot make any further amendments once the 28 day change period has ended.
What should I do if I have technical problems when completing the report?
If you experience technical issues while completing the report, please lodge a support request, please include as much detail (e.g. screenshots) that you can. A member from our team will investigate and assist.
2. Workplace Profile and Workforce Management Statistics
What employees are included in the Workplace Profile?
On your WPP include any of the following types of employees who were employed as at your snapshot date:
- all employees who were employed by your organisation on the snapshot date, even if they have since left the organisation
- all employees who work for you in Australia, regardless of whether they are Australian citizens or not
- Full-time or part-time employees who were stood down in the 12 months preceding the snapshot date (i.e. employees who were technically ‘employed' on the snapshot even if they were not working or being paid)
- foreign nationals or expatriates working in Australia, including those with global responsibilities, if the Australian organisation is their employer or they are the CEO
- employees who have worked overseas for less than six months in a reporting period
- employees on parental leave (paid or unpaid) or on extended leave
- equity partners who receive part of their earnings as a salary
- casual or seasonal workers
- trainees, apprentices, and graduates.
Do not include:
- an employee who resigned or was terminated/dismissed before the snapshot date
- an employee who was hired after the snapshot date
- independent contractors
- employees of a labour hire company who have been assigned to work in your business
- volunteers or unpaid visitors.
Do I need to include contractors, consultants or labour hire in the Workplace Profile and Workplace Management Statistics files?
Consultants, contractors and labour hire should not be included in your report. They would be captured by the organisation that employs and supplied the contractor, consultant or labour hire.
What is the snapshot date in the WPP?
The snapshot date provides a snapshot of an employer’s workforce during the reporting period (1 January to 31 December 2022). The snapshot date is only used for the WPP. Employers are free to choose any snapshot date during the reporting period, though we recommend this is kept consistent year-to-year to aid in analysis. If the APSC is uploading your workforce data, the snapshot date for your workplace profile will automatically be set to 31 December 2022.
Can reporting be done via STP data sharing?
This is not an option for completing the Workplace Profile. The ‘STP’ version of the Workplace Profile has payment categories aligned to STP reporting but is not set up for automatic data sharing.
What payment types should I include in my Workplace Profile?
For a list of payment types that you should include in the Workplace Profile, see the section “10.5 Where does this payment go?” in the Public Sector Reporting Guide.
What if my organisation has had a machinery of government (MOG) change?
The APSC manages data for machinery of government change through the APS Employment Database. If your agency was part of a MOG change during the 2022 calendar year, the data at 31 December 2022 (snapshot date) used for gender equality reporting will reflect this change. Remuneration data will be annualised and converted to FTE, as per the requirements of the Workplace Profile.
3. APSC bulk upload process
How can I see the bulk upload workforce data provided by the APSC?
A summary of the aggregated data provided by the ASPC will be available to you through the WGEA portal when you have completed your reporting, via the ‘Data insights’ tab. WGEA does not have access to the raw files uploaded by the APSC. If you would like access to the raw files relating to this data, we suggest that you reach out to your internal HR team or whoever completes the APS Remuneration Survey to interrogate the data.
What if I have both APS and non-APS employees?
If you have a ‘hybrid’ workforce (i.e., both APS and non-APS employees), you will still be able to transfer APS employee data from the APSC and will only provide the data for your non-APS employees. WGEA is working on a technical solution to this process for the upcoming gender equality reporting and will be in contact with relevant employers.
If I participated in voluntary public sector gender equality reporting in 2022, do I have to nominate my APSC data upload processes again?
Preferences for APSC bulk upload data will be rolled over from last year’s voluntary reporting program. If you would like to change these preferences, notify our WGEA support team via email so your preference can be updated in our system.
How does WGEA map the APS employer database manager categories to the WGEA manager categories?
A mapping of the APS employer database manager categories converted to the WGEA manager categories can be found in the table below. Positions at the Executive level 1 (EL1) and above are classified as manager positions.
|
Classification |
WGEA manager category |
|
APS trainee APS graduate |
Nil. |
|
APS level 1 APS level 2 APS level 3 APS level 4 APS level 5 APS level 6 |
Nil. |
|
Executive level 1 |
Other managers (OM) |
|
Executive level 2 |
Senior managers (SM) |
|
Senior Executive Band 1 or equivalent |
Executive and general managers (GM) |
|
Senior Executive Band 2 or equivalent |
Key management personnel (KMP) |
|
Senior Executive Band 3 or equivalent |
Key management personnel (KMP) |
|
Agency Head |
Chief Executive Officer or equivalent (CEO) |
What is included in total remuneration for APS employees?
Remuneration data is drawn from the APS Remuneration Survey. Payment types included in total remuneration include any of the following relevant payments:
- Base Salary and shift penalty payments
- Agency Superannuation Contribution
- Motor Vehicle Cost EVS
- Cash in Lieu of Motor Vehicle
- Motor Vehicle Parking
- Personal Benefits
- Bonuses (Work Related, Retention, Productivity, Sign On, Group or Whole of Agency Performance)
- Top of range payments
- Allowances (annualised and total)
- Overtime payments
- Shift penalty payments
- Other Supplementary Payments not otherwise described
For more information, see the APS remuneration survey guide or get in contact with your organisations’ HR team or relevant team who submitted the remuneration survey to the APSC.
4. Gender pay gap
When will I receive my gender pay gap?
Your gender pay gap will be available in your Reporting Overview, which will be generated when you have completed your submission through the WGEA Portal.
Will my gender pay gap be made public?
WGEA will publish the first set of Commonwealth public sector gender pay gaps in late 2024 or early 2025. This will cover the 2023 reporting period (1 January – 31 December 2023). WGEA does not intend to publicise gender pay gaps for the first round of required Commonwealth public sector gender equality reporting occurring in 2023.
Why might my WGEA calculated gender pay gap be different to that reported by the APSC?
WGEA calculates the gender pay gap using total remuneration, which includes superannuation, overtime, bonuses and other additional payments. The APSC calculates the gender pay gap using base salary, which does not include the additional payments like superannuation or overtime. Using this method ensures the APSC gender pay gap is comparable to the National gender pay gap.
At an aggregate or industry level, the WGEA gender pay gap calculated for the public sector includes both APS and non-APS agencies, while the APSC gender pay gap includes only APS agencies. Further information on how WGEA calculates a gender pay gap (including the formula) can be found here.
5. Notification and access requirements
How do I comply with WGEA’s notification and access requirements?
Notification and access requirements relate to how you share the public data (i.e., all non-confidential data) from your report. To comply, an employer must:
- Inform its employees and members (or shareholders if relevant) that it has lodged its report with the Agency and advise how the public data may be accessed
- Provide access to the public data to employees and members or shareholders
- Inform employee organisations with members in its workplace that the report has been lodged
- Inform its employees and those employee organisations with members in its workplace of the opportunity to comment on the report to the employer or the Agency.
For tips and examples on how an employer can comply with these requirements, review our Public Sector Reporting Guide page on notification and access requirements.
6. Insight reports
What is the Executive Summary Report?
The Executive Summary is a report of your results against WGEA’s six gender equality indicators. This is a summary of responses to mandatory questions in your WGEA Gender Equality submission and does not include voluntary response data. The purpose of this report is to enable you to identify priorities of action for your Gender Equality strategy. This report can only be generated after all organisations have finalised their reports and the data has been reviewed and analysed by WGEA, employers are notified via email when this document is ready to generate and download.
What is the Industry Benchmark Report?
The Industry Benchmark Report compares your salary and remuneration data to all other Commonwealth public sector entities. The purpose of this report is to help you understand how your organisation is tracking in its gender pay gap. This report can only be generated after all organisations have finalised their reports and the data has been reviewed and analysed by WGEA, employers are notified via email when this document is ready to generate and download.
7. Complying with the Act
How do I comply with the Workplace Gender Equality Act?
An employer will comply with the Workplace Gender Equality Act if they:
- Submit an annual report with all mandatory data before the submission deadline
- Have their CEO or Agency/Department head (or equivalent) review and approve the submission
- Provide information to review an employer’s compliance if we ask
- Do not include anything false or misleading in the report or in the extra compliance information the Agency requests.
- Comply with notification and access requirements
- If an employer employs 500 or more employees, the compliance is also subject to meeting a minimum standard.
We can review an employer’s compliance with the Act:
- By asking for more information
- Reviewing randomly selected reports
- After assessing comments their employees or employee organisations have made.
For employers with 500 or more employees, details on how to meet a minimum standard are outlined in section 11.3 of our Public Sector Reporting Guide.