The Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA) Reporting Guides are dedicated resources to assist employers to prepare and lodge their Gender Equality Report and meet their compliance requirements.

Gender Equality Reporting Programs

The Workplace Gender Equality Act 2012 (the Act) requires relevant private sector and Commonwealth public sector employers that employ (or are deemed to employ) 100 or more employees in total, to prepare and lodge data annually in one of two Gender Equality Reporting programs.


WGEA provides a (Gender Equality) Reporting Guide for each of the two programs:
 

The Act establishes WGEA as a statutory agency, and the framework for employers to annually provide information to WGEA on matters relating to various gender equality indicators.

The following legislative instruments were made under the Act by the Minister for Women. 

• Workplace Gender Equality (Gender Equality Standards) Instrument 2023 which specifies the six gender equality indicators, and the minimum standards that specified employers are required to meet in relation to specified reporting periods; and
• Workplace Gender Equality (Matters in relation to Gender Equality Indicators) Instrument 2023 which sets out the matters relating to the six gender equality indicators in respect of which information is required to be provided in an employer report.
• Workplace Gender Equality (Gender Equality Targets) Instrument 2025: Requires employers with 500 or more employees to select and commit to achieving three gender equality targets from a menu of numeric and action-oriented targets. Employers have three years to meet or demonstrate improvement on their selected targets.

The above instruments replace the Workplace Gender Equality (Matters in relation to Gender Equality Indicators) Instrument 2013 (No.1) and Workplace Gender Equality (Minimum Standards) Instrument 2014 which are no longer in force, but apply to employer reports for the 2023 (and earlier) reporting periods. 

Employers are subject to various obligations and requirements under the Act, including (but not necessarily limited to) the following:

• lodge an annual report (approved by their CEO or equivalent) containing all mandatory data (and approved by their CEO or equivalent) by the submission deadline;
• when lodging their annual report, inform WGEA (in the declaration section) whether the report includes any personal information;
• after lodging a report –
• inform their employees, any shareholders and members, and each employee organisation that has members who are the employer's employees, of the lodgement of the report;
• make the report available to their employees, shareholders and members (excluding certain information specified under the Act);
• advise their employees and employee organisations that they can provide comments on the report to the employer or WGEA;
• provide copies of Executive Summary and Industry Benchmark Reports provided to the employer by WGEA, to the employer's governing body (if any);
• provide information requested by WGEA in relation to the employer's compliance with the Act or their performance against the gender equality standards;
• not including any false or misleading information in lodged reports, or responses to WGEA requests for information;
• for employers with 500 or more employees in Australia - comply with and (if the employer failed to comply in the previous reporting year) improve their performance against the Gender Equality Standards.

It is the responsibility of employers to fully inform themselves, ensure they understand, and comply with their obligations under the Act.

WGEA monitors and reviews employer compliance with the Act, and can require an employer to provide it with information for compliance purposes.