Employers required to select and meet gender equality targets should check whether they are eligible to select a target before they commit to achieving it.
Each target has its own eligibility requirements, and you cannot select a target you are not eligible for.
If you are not eligible to select a target, it will not appear in your target selection list in the WGEA Employer Portal when you lodge your Gender Equality Report.
The key thing to know is that you cannot select a target you have already achieved.
You can find out whether you have achieved (or partially achieved) a target by looking at your ‘targets baseline data’. The baseline is the year from which WGEA will measure your overall progress in meeting the target. If you reported that you had achieved the target or a target option in this year, you cannot select to achieve it in the future. WGEA will not apply discretion to this rule.
Once you know your baseline, you need to compare that information to the targets eligibility rules and create a list of the targets you are eligible to select.
The following steps will help you to check whether you are eligible to select a target from the Targets Menu.
Step 1: Start with the right year
First thing to check is your baseline year.
If you are selecting targets in 2026, your baseline is the information you reported to WGEA in your Gender Equality Report in 2025. This is the:
- 2024–25 reporting period if you are a private sector employer
- 2024 reporting period if you are a Commonwealth public sector employer.
You are not creating new data here. Eligibility is assessed only using what you already submitted to WGEA for that year.
Step 2: Have the right documents open
You will need up to 4 WGEA documents from that baseline year. Most eligibility questions WGEA receives from employers arise because the relevant documents have not been reviewed.
Open these first:
- your Public Report
- your Executive Summary
- your Industry Benchmark Report, if you are looking at certain gender pay gap targets
- WGEA’s Finding Your Baseline Guide.
You do not need to read everything. You can determine whether you are eligible to select a target based on specific tables or questions in these documents. The information included in your reports comes from the data you provided in your Gender Equality Report.
Step 3: Pick the target you are interested in
Eligibility is determined per target, not overall.
Ask yourself, ‘What targets am I thinking about selecting?’
For example:
- Increased representation of managers
- Reduce the gender pay gap
- Improve flexible work offerings for employees
- Introduce employer-funded parental leave.
Once you know the target, use the Finding Your Baseline Guide to determine:
- which document to look at
- what your data must show for you to be eligible to select that target.
Step 4: Check whether your baseline shows you already have the proposed target in place
You are only eligible to select a target if your baseline data shows you have something to change. For most targets, if something is already in place in the baseline, it cannot be selected. If you have already achieved a target, you cannot select to achieve it.
Here is what that means in practice.
If it is a numeric target
Numeric targets improve representation, composition, or pay gaps.
You need to check:
- whether a gender is under‑represented
- the proportion of managers working part-time
- whether a pay gap exists.
Examples:
- If women already make up 50% or more of senior managers, you cannot select the target to increase women in that group.
- If your gender pay gap is already zero for the measure you are looking at, you cannot select a pay gap reduction target for that measure.
Where you check this:
- The Finding Your Baseline Guide tells you the exact documents and question numbers to look at, so you are not guessing.
If it is an action target
Action targets introduce policies, practices, and employee entitlements.
At a high level, the rule is:
- if you already do the thing in your baseline, you cannot select it as a target.
- if you do some of it, but not all of it, you can usually select the things you didn’t do in the baseline.
Examples:
- If you already offer universal employer‑funded parental leave, you cannot select the target to introduce it, but you might be eligible to improve it.
- If your policy already includes enough of the listed elements, you cannot select that target.
Where you check this:
- This information is almost always in your Public Report. The Finding Your Baseline Guide tells you the exact documents and question numbers to look at, so you are not guessing.
Some targets have very specific eligibility rules
Most targets work the way you would expect. You check your baseline data to see whether something is missing. However, a small number of targets have narrower eligibility rules. These are intentional and apply consistently across all employers.
Eligibility for some action targets is assessed on just one part of what you reported, rather than your overall practice.
For example:
- The ‘Improve flexible work offerings for employees’ target is not determined by how much flexibility you offer in practice. Eligibility is based only on what is included in the specific policy elements listed in the target.
- For the ‘Employee consultation on gender equality issues’ target, eligibility is based solely on whether consultation occurred in the baseline year.
Step 5: Compare your data to the eligibility rules
If something feels unclear, you can double‑check by:
- displaying your Public Report, Executive Summary, and/or Industry Benchmark Report on one screen on your computer,
- displaying the Finding Your Baseline Guide for that target on another screen, and
- line them up and follow it line by line.
When checking eligibility, you are simply looking at what was reported in your baseline and comparing it directly to the eligibility rule for that target.
If the rule says: ‘you must not already provide at least X’, then you count what is there and stop.
Step 6: Reach out to WGEA with any queries
If you have checked all your documents and are still unsure whether you are eligible to select a target, contact targets@wgea.gov.au and we can assist.