Who must provide WGEA employer statement on the gender pay gap?

Employers can publish an employer statement alongside WGEA's published pay gap figures.

WGEA publishes the gender pay gap of every relevant employer on its Employer Data Explorer; its 2024-25 Employer Gender Pay Gaps Report, released in March 2026, covers about 8,500 private sector workplaces, 126 Commonwealth public sector employers and 1,850 corporate groups. Each year a reporting employer may add an Employer Statement: a publicly accessible web page, linked from the Employer Portal, that WGEA displays beside the employer's published gap. The statement lets the employer explain the context for its gap, its gender equality priorities and commitments, and its progress against any gender equality targets. Providing one is not compulsory, WGEA provides no template (it publishes an Employer Statement Guide), and WGEA does not review or warrant a statement's accuracy. Corporate groups can link a group-wide statement and subsidiary-specific statements.

Applies when the business has 100+ employees.

How the regulator frames it: Relevant employers under the Workplace Gender Equality Act 2012 whose gender pay gaps WGEA publishes: private sector employers, Commonwealth public sector employers, registered higher education providers, public companies and not-for-profits with 100 or more employees (or corporate groups with 100 or more employees combined). Only organisations that received their own Executive Summary appear in the Employer Statement list.

What triggers it: Lodging an annual Gender Equality Report (lodgement period 1 April to 31 May) as a relevant employer, which leads WGEA to publish the employer's gender pay gap.

Jurisdiction: Commonwealth law, so the test is the same in every state and territory.

Outcome across the 35 industries Rules Mate maps (35 of 35: depends on size or structure).

The answer is the same in every industry: depends on size or structure. Industry does not change who must comply.

Structure does not change the answer across all industries: for every structure the answer is "depends on size or structure".

Each line is one run of the Rules Mate applicability engine for a single business profile, with the reason the engine gives:

• Pty Ltd company in real estate agents with 100–499 employees, turnover $10M–$100M: applies. 100+ employees.
• Pty Ltd company in real estate agents with 6–19 employees, turnover $1M–$3M: does not apply. Requires 100+ employees.
• Pty Ltd company in real estate agents with no employees, turnover $100K–$1M: does not apply. Requires 100+ employees.

When due

Optional. To appear alongside the gap when it is published, upload the statement link in the WGEA Employer Portal at least one week before WGEA publishes employer gender pay gaps; the link does not go live before publication.

Frequency

Annual

Evidence to keep

Published Employer Statement at a publicly accessible URL (beginning https://), the link entered against each relevant employer in the Employer Portal after accepting WGEA's notice and disclaimer, and the gender pay gap analysis and target progress data the statement relies on.

Status

Current

Priority

Medium

Maximum penalty: No penalty: providing an Employer Statement is not compulsory. The underlying Gender Equality Report is mandatory, and WGEA has used its statutory power to name relevant employers that did not lodge on time.

Rules Mate has not yet classified the audit or assurance level for this obligation. Any audit, review or certification requirement is set by the regulator source listed below.

If this obligation applies to you, so does this one: the engine uses the same rule for each.

• Lodge WGEA workplace gender equality report

Across the 1,890 business profiles Rules Mate evaluates, these obligations apply to most of the businesses this one applies to, and are far more common among them than among businesses generally:

• Pay ACT payroll tax when threshold met: applies to 100% of the same businesses (3.0× the overall rate)
• Pay NSW payroll tax when threshold met: applies to 100% of the same businesses (3.0× the overall rate)
• Pay Northern Territory payroll tax when threshold met: applies to 100% of the same businesses (3.0× the overall rate)
• Pay Queensland payroll tax when threshold met: applies to 100% of the same businesses (3.0× the overall rate)
• Pay South Australian payroll tax when threshold met: applies to 100% of the same businesses (3.0× the overall rate)
• Pay Tasmanian payroll tax when threshold met: applies to 100% of the same businesses (3.0× the overall rate)

Rules Mate tracks 2 published obligations tagged "gender equality", 0 of them rated critical. For a professional services Pty Ltd company with 6–19 employees operating in every state, 0 of those apply outright. This obligation is rated medium priority, and is a annual obligation.

Regulated by Workplace Gender Equality Agency.

WGEA: Administers the WGE Act — mandatory annual reporting on gender equality indicators for employers with 100+ staff. Publishes employer gender pay gaps.

• Workplace Gender Equality Agency

Workplace Gender Equality Act 2012: Annual gender equality reporting for non-public sector employers with 100+ employees.

• Workplace Gender Equality Act 2012

Free tools that help with this obligation:

• Payday Super readiness
• Right to Disconnect policy
• WGEA readiness