Employers with 500 or more direct employees have reporting and compliance obligations under the Workplace Gender Equality Act 2012 (the Act) and Workplace Gender Equality (Gender Equality Targets) Instrument 2025 (LI) to select and meet gender equality targets.

Known legally as Designated Relevant Employers (DREs), these employers need to select and commit to achieve 3 targets when they lodge their Gender Equality Report to WGEA in 2026.  Targets can be numeric or action, but at least one target selected must be numeric. DREs can only choose targets that are included in the Targets Menu. They cannot supply their own.

For the first targets cycle, DREs have 3 years from when they select targets in 2026 to meet or demonstrate improvement against their targets. Under the legislation, WGEA will assess whether an employer has met their targets or improved against them by comparing the information a DRE reports for their final year of the target cycle to the data they reported to WGEA in what is known as the ‘baseline year’. The baseline for private sector employers is the 2024-25 reporting period. For Commonwealth public sector employers, the baseline is the 2024 reporting period.  

If a DRE employs fewer than 400 employees for a continuous period of 6 months, they cease to be a DRE and are no longer subject to the gender equality targets legislative requirements. However, although no longer formally included in the targets cycle, the employer is encouraged to continue pursuing their selected targets.

When an employer stops being a DRE for a period but later resumes its status as a DRE, they must re-establish their baseline and commence a new target cycle. If they fail to select targets in the following reporting lodgement period, they may be found to be non-compliant with the Act.

If some or all of a corporate group’s subsidiaries have the same or similar gender equality policies, strategies and actions, these employers can report to WGEA as a ‘submission group.’

Each DRE will be able to report their own target selection within a submission group, and WGEA recommends selecting and working to meet targets that are relevant and tailored to their specific context.

It is important to note that for action targets, if not selected by all DREs and/or if not going to be implemented by all employers in a submission group, DREs will need to lodge their Gender Equality Report as a standalone entity in subsequent years.

The first target selection will occur during 25 - 26 Public Sector Reporting. Below is an example of how employers will select their Targets.

DREs must select targets and commit to achieve them by the end of the target cycle. If an employer fails to select and commit to achieve targets at the beginning of the targets cycle, or meet, or demonstrate improvement against their selected targets at the end of the targets cycle, WGEA may name the employer in a report to the Minister that is tabled in both Houses of Parliament or publicly by electronic or other means (such as on WGEA’s website or in a newspaper). WGEA offers the opportunity to provide a reasonable excuse for the non-compliance. If the reasonable excuse is accepted, the employer remains non-compliant but will not be named.