Current approach

The Workplace Gender Equality Act provides that all relevant employers must prepare a public report to WGEA containing information about the employer against six gender equality indicators (GEIs). The GEIs make up the Workplace Gender Equality Agency’s dataset. WGEA uses this dataset for analysis to support Australian employers to drive gender equality in their workplaces.

The specific information that employers are required to report on is included in the Workplace Gender Equality (Matters in relation to Gender Equality Indicators) Instrument 2013 (No. 1). Covering off key information on gender in the workplace, the six gender equality indicators are:

• GEI 1 – gender composition of the workforce
• GEI 2 – gender composition of governing bodies
• GEI 3 – equal remuneration between women and men
• GEI 4 – availability and utility of employment terms, conditions and practices relating to flexible working arrangements for employees and to working arrangements supporting employees with family or caring responsibilities
• GEI 5 – consultation with employees on issues concerning gender equality in the workplace
• GEI 6 – sex-based harassment and discrimination.

Currently only GEIs 1-5 are in the Workplace Gender Equality Act (section 13 of the Act). GEI 6 was introduced in the Workplace Gender Equality (Matters in relation to Gender Equality Indicators) Instrument 2013 (No. 1). 

Proposed approach

Refine the gender equality indicators to add targeted additional mandatory reporting questions

Many stakeholders support the existing GEIs but recommended a number of improvements to fine-tune them. Employers already voluntarily report on items beyond the current GEIs that produce a more detailed picture of gender equality in the workplace. This includes employee age and location and whether superannuation is paid on parental leave. Collecting this additional data provides valuable insights for employers and policy makers. 

Many additional GEIs were proposed in the consultation process. However, it is recommended that only four targeted mandatory reporting questions be added at this stage. This strikes the right balance between stakeholders who asked the review to be mindful of the regulatory impact of introducing additional reporting requirements and those who sought to add more GEIs to accelerate the pace of change.

Reporting to WGEA on age

Age is a critical component of the gender pay gap. As shown in the WGEA Gender Pay Gap Fact Sheet in Appendix 6, in each of the five age brackets there is a gender pay gap in favour of men. The average gender pay gap increases to its highest point at 17.7 per cent for the over 55 years and over age group. This reflects the impact that spending time out of the workforce due to family caring responsibilities has on the gender pay gap. In 2020-21 WGEA collected data on the age of employees on a voluntary basis. There was a very high reporting rate, with 73 per cent of employers reporting voluntarily on age. Age and gender data will enable WGEA to support employers in driving targeted actions on gender equality in the workplace. That is why it is recommended that it be mandatory for employers to report on age (Recommendation 7.1.a).

Reporting to WGEA on primary workplace location of employee

Location has a significant impact on women’s and men’s interaction with the workforce. Location can increase the likelihood of women facing workplace harassment and discrimination and negatively impact career progression and promotions. For the 2020-21 reporting period, WGEA collected data on the main workplace location of employees on a voluntary basis, with 72.8 per cent of employers providing data on employee location to WGEA. The fact that most employers chose to provide this data suggests many are already collecting it. Collecting data on an employee’s primary workplace location enables a deeper understanding of gender equality outcomes for urban, regional and rural employers as well as enabling WGEA to drive further targeted approaches to support employers in addressing elements of the gender pay gap related to location. That is why it is recommended that it be mandatory for employers to report on the primary workplace location of employees (Recommendation 7.1.b).

Reporting to WGEA on superannuation

Narrowing the superannuation gap is an important outcome of closing the gender pay gap. There continues to be a superannuation gap in favour of men. For the 2020-21 reporting period, WGEA asked employers, on a voluntary basis, to state whether they pay superannuation for employees on parental leave, both paid and unpaid: 60.1 per cent of employers provided this data. Given the significance of employers paying superannuation on parental leave as a way to accelerate gender equality, it is recommended that it be mandatory for employers to report on whether superannuation is paid by an employer when an employee is on parental leave of any kind (Recommendation 7.1.c). Data on whether employers pay superannuation to their employees for all types of parental leave will provide WGEA with insights to advise employers of best practice.

Reporting to WGEA on CEO remuneration

Some employers report CEO remuneration data on a voluntary basis. For instance, for the 2020-21 reporting period, 51.3 per cent of employers provided remuneration data for the CEO on a voluntary basis. However, as noted above, it is not mandatory for employers to report CEO remuneration to WGEA. This gap in the WGEA dataset means statistics on remuneration between women and men, including the gender pay gap, are incomplete.

Given the low numbers of women in CEO roles compared to men, exclusion of this data means current WGEA gender pay gap data under-reports the gender pay gap. To get more accurate data on gender pay gaps, it is recommended that employers report to WGEA on remuneration data for Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) or the equivalent (Recommendation 7.1.d). Individual remuneration would not be public but would be aggregated to calculate gender pay gaps and used for other remuneration analysis and insights.

Enable WGEA to collect data on non-binary people

In line with the ABS 2020 Standard for Sex, Gender, Variations of Sex Characteristics and Sexual Orientation Variables, it is recommended that employers provide WGEA with gender equality data on non-binary people in their workforce (Recommendation 7.2). Implementing this recommendation requires further consultation with stakeholders, particularly affected stakeholders, and amendment of the Workplace Gender Equality Act.

Further work needed on improving other aspects of GEIs

Recommendation 7.3 proposes that further work needs to be done with stakeholders to identify the best way to approach the improvement of various other aspects of GEIs.

Occupations and jobs

Many employers raised concerns in the consultation process about WGEA’s reporting requirements on occupations and jobs. Some employers have reported that ANZSCO level 3 is not specific enough to accurately reflect employee roles. Expanding to level 4 of this non-manager category means WGEA would collect data on specific roles. For example, WGEA currently collects data on employees in the major group ‘Technicians and Trades Workers’ (ANZSCO level 1). Expanding to level 4 of this non-manager category means WGEA would collect data on ‘Automotive Electricians’. This improved description makes it easier for employers to match their job roles to the correct occupational category. In contrast, a number of universities noted that the ANZSCO classifications are not a good fit for employment structures in universities.

More granular data on occupations and job classifications will enable greater insights from the data, particularly the impact of labour market segmentation as it contributes to the gender pay gap. Given the stakeholder issues raised about reporting on occupations, it is recommended that further work be done to identify the best approach to report on occupations and jobs at Australian and New Zealand Standard Classification of Occupations (ANZSCO) level 4 for non-managers (Recommendation 7.3.a).

Partnerships

Partners in partnership structures are not ‘employees’ for WGEA reporting purposes. Partners are considered owners – not employees – of the business. However, stakeholders said this results in an under-reporting of WGEA’s gender pay gap figures. This is because partnership structures are used in industries with high gender pay gaps, such as legal and accounting industries. WGEA’s 2019-20 dataset shows that the Legal and Accounting Services group has a full-time gender pay gap of 18.9 per cent, and this does not include partner remuneration. To improve the value of the WGEA dataset, and get a true picture of the gender pay gap in their workplaces, it is recommended that further work be done to identify the best approach to including partnerships and partners in the WGEA dataset more comprehensively than they are currently (Recommendation 7.3.b).

Implementing this recommendation requires further consultation with stakeholders, particularly affected stakeholders such as law firms and consulting firms. Issues to address in implementing the recommendation that partnerships and partners are more comprehensively included in WGEA’s dataset include:

• collecting data on promotions and resignations of partners
• collecting disaggregated data on the composition and equity status of partners in firms with partnership structures, and
• requiring employers to report remuneration data on partners in partnership structures.

Individual entities within corporate structures

Stakeholders reported the complexity of reporting as a parent group/hierarchy. Most reporting organisations are reporting on this data as it relates to the employing entity, but there are a substantial number that submit their report as it relates to their parent entity/group hierarchy. To enable consistent comparison data across employers and industries, it is recommended that more work be done to identify the best way to make it mandatory for relevant employers to report on data as it relates to individual entities within corporate structures, not as it relates to the group hierarchy (Recommendation 7.3.c).

Work by WGEA on ‘manager categories’

Stakeholders have reported that WGEA’s current ‘manager categories’ could align better with existing workplace reporting structures. The WGEA manager categories are based on responsibilities rather than reporting levels to the CEO. Data on the composition of leadership by gender is important to understand progress through the leadership pipeline and identify and address the continued challenges to increasing the proportion of women in leadership. WGEA is currently leading work to determine the best approach to manager categories, which will improve the value of benchmarking for employers.

Other opportunities to improve data in the short-term

While not the subject of numbered recommendations, there are other short-term opportunities to improve the collection and analysis of data. This includes requiring employers to report against one ‘snapshot’ date. Currently they can choose any date to report on within the 1 April-31 March reporting period. The data that employers report to WGEA is used to analyse gender equality issues in the workplace. It would improve comparability and timeliness of the data if employers were required to report on one snapshot date. It is suggested this discussion be included in the proposed GEI consultations with stakeholders.

Another opportunity is that WGEA should be able to specify the mechanism (e.g. the WGEA digital platform) that employers must use for reporting to WGEA. WGEA advises that 99 per cent of employers already use the WGEA online platform to report. WGEA has set up their online reporting platform to efficiently collate reports submitted by employers. Sometimes employers submit their reporting documents outside of the online system, which means it takes longer for these employers to see and use the data outputs from their reports.