WGEA Gender Pay Gaps: 7 Dates

7 important dates you really should know by now

On the 27th of February 2024, WGEA will publish the 22/23 gender pay gaps for thousands of larger employers, providing stakeholders insights into gender composition, median pay gaps, and average remuneration per pay quartile.

The following provides a summary of key WGEA dates, which should be common knowledge by now for organisations and individual leaders.

Unfortunately, the evidence suggests that some organisations may be about to visibly fall through the gap themselves, despite the relevance of gender equality in the workplace, across numerous functions including strategy, risk, compliance, ESG, HR and of course diversity, equity and inclusion.

The following is the first of three articles to be published before #genderpaygapday arrives, to help board, executives and staff understand crucial dates, upcoming changes, reasons to act and where to get help now.

The format includes a short summary and a longer more detailed explanation.

Summary - 7 Dates:

A brief summary of some key upcoming and past dates, you should have been aware of already.

1.????? 6th Dec 2023:

• WGEA 22/23 Executive Summary & Industry Benchmark reports available.
• Compliance requirement to share reports promptly with the Board.

2.????? 12th Feb 2024:

• 200+ 22/23 non-compliant employers named by WGEA including some well know associated brands. e.g. Body Shop.
• Reputational risk and potential impact on dealings with the government and Australian Human Rights Commission new Positive Duty powers.

3.????? 20th Feb 2024:

• Recommended timing for loading 22/23 Employer Statements into the portal.
• These provide a first line opportunity to discuss gender pay gaps and composition with stakeholders with strategy and risk considerations.

4.????? 27th Feb 2024:

• 22/23 Gender gap reporting for all individual reporting organisations.
• Base salary and total remuneration median pay gap data published for private sector employers with 100+ staff.

5.????? 31st March 2024:

• Final date for the 23/24 WGEA reporting period.
• Limited time to act on gender equity before this reporting period begins.

6.????? 1st Apr 2024:

• ?23/24 WGEA submission period opens.
• Risk of later inclusion on the 23/24 Non-Complying Employer list.

7.????? 31st May 2024:

• 23/24 WGEA reporting submission period closes.
• Last chance for any changes. 23/24 gender gaps published in early 2025.

Note: Commonwealth Public Sector gender gap reports are planned for publication in late 2024.

Expanded - 7 Dates:

A more detailed explanation of those key dates and implications outlined.

WGEA Executive Summary & Industry Benchmark report downloads.

From this date last year, both the WGEA's Executive Summary and Industry Benchmark Reports have been available for download for every reportable organisation from the WGEA portal.

They must be both shared with the Board (or alternative governing body) as soon as is reasonably practicable after this date.

Given that many governing bodies meet at least bi-monthly (most monthly), many organisations are likely to be already technically non-compliant with this new requirement.? For Chairs, Directors, CEO’s, Company Secretaries, and Executives involved with HR, strategy, risk, or compliance, this should have been scheduled into the Board agenda already, and certainly before the end of the new reporting period on 31st March, for 23/24, else risk non-compliance.

12th Feb 2024: Non-Compliant Employers Named

The WGEA has exercised their statutory powers by naming 200+ employers who failed to comply with the Workplace Gender Equality Act 2012. ?The WGEA websites states that not all employers who failed?to comply with the Act are on the list, as they have exercised their discretion based on a range of factors including reasonable attempts to comply, first-time reporters, size of the employer, prior compliance history and written representation by the employer.

On one hand it is clear that some of these employers actually no longer exist, may be in administration, have been sold or are undergoing restructuring to survive. For example, both Statewide Super and LUCRF are super funds that merged with Hostplus and AustralianSuper in April and June 2022 respectively, so did not technically exist during the submission period. It is also important to note that some business may be independently owned business, trading with the brand name under a separate ownership, dealership or franchise operation.?

However, there are some well recognised (domestic and international) brands associated with companies on the WGEA Non-Compliant Employers list, such as Sofitel Sydney Wentworth, Holden, Gumtree Group, Hall Chadwick, Huawei, Thrifty Car & Truck Rental Australia , Kennards Self Storage, McDonald's, Kresta Holdings Limited, Manly Warringah Sea Eagles, Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts, Hilton Adelaide, Mitre 10 Australia , TBWA\Worldwide, The Body Shop, Frankston Toyota, and Tree of Life.

Take for example, the Body Shop, given their purposeful positioning of Fighting for a Fairer and More Beautiful World and having "equality in their DNA". This provides potential erosion of brand goodwill and incongruent reputational risk, for an organisation already fighting for its own survival at present.

So whilst some more homework from the WGEA is probably required to clean up the technically non-compliant employer list, there may now be some risks created and questions coming for some brands and the individual associated companies from their stakeholders, both internal and external.

In addition to the stakeholder reputational risk, non-compliance may also hinder the ability to work with the Commonwealth Government, receive funding or financial assistance for a range of their initiatives. Furthermore, non-compliance could be used as a consideration by the Australian Human Rights Commission and their new powers towards ensuring an employer’s compliance with the positive duty to ensure workplaces are safe, inclusive, gender-equal, respectful, and free from sexual harassment and sex discrimination.

20th February 2024: Employer Statements Proposed Deadline

The WGEA recommends loading any Employer Statements to support their gender gap into the WGEA portal before 20th February 2024, to ensure it is included alongside your gender pay gap when published on 27th February.

The Employer Statement is an opportunity for business to add context, commentary and explain their gender pay gaps and gender composition to stakeholders and interested parties.? It is a first line opportunity to discuss the gender equity competitive benefits of the organisation or alternatively risk mitigation for those organisations whose gender composition and pay gap could be perceived as a strategic, governance and/or operational weakness.

The uploaded Employer Statements will be accessible via a link near their gender pay gaps and the facility to upload this, has been available since mid-January.

27th February 2024: Individual Gender Gaps published.

The publication of base salary and total remuneration median gender pay gaps, gender composition and average remuneration per pay quartile for all private sector employers with 100 or more staff will be published for all stakeholders and interested parties to see.?

For some organisations this will be an opportunity to use the gender gap data combined with their Employer Statement to either reinforce their positive competitive employer branding advantage or alternatively mitigate some of the potential diversity risks by explaining their individual gender competition and pay gaps, with reference to the domestic market and relative to their industries

31st March 2024: Final date for 23/24 WGEA Reporting Period

The data submitted for the Gender Equality Reporting program will be in respect to the 12 months from 1?April?of the prior year to 31 March of the current year.

There is only one month (24 workdays) between the date your 22/23 pay gap data is published and last day for the data for the new 23/24 reporting period.

There is a very small window of opportunity left, to take positive action towards effecting the gender equity data for your organisation. Unlike the 22/23 data, the 23/24 data will include both the mean and median gender pay gap information.

All efforts after this date to improve either the gender representation, pay equity or the relative remuneration bias within the organisation, will not be evident until the following 24/25 report, most likely to be published around this time in 2026.

1st April 2024: 23/24 Submission Period Opens

All 23/24 WGEA reporting is due during this period.?

Those that don’t finalise the reporting during this time risk being included on the 23/24 Non-Complying Employer list, likely to be published in early 2025.?

There are many changes required for the 23/24 WGEA. These are summarised in our next publication, due this Friday, so make sure to follow on LinkedIn.

31st May 2024: 23/24 Submission Period Closes

Final date for uploading WGEA reporting.

23/24 gender gaps reporting for private sector organisations planned for publication in early 2025.

Final date for ensuring all new reporting requirements are met.

There is very little time left to prepare for the changes to next year's reporting, let alone improving you gender equality and gender pay gap.

The work invested over the next shirt period can be reflected in the WGEA publication early next year. Otherwise, you'll have to wait until early 2026, to further demonstrate your commitment to gender equity and closing the pay gap, when the 24/25 WGEA company gender pay gaps are published.

For urgent assistance with Employer Statements, upcoming 23/24 compliance reporting (including gender pay gap remuneration analysis), gender-based DEI policy or future strategy development, contact us today.

You can book a chat now, or email us for an alternate discussion day or time.

To learn more about urgent, divergent and incongruent gender-based risks, download our brief discussion on our gender equity remoDEI service.

Next article: Coming (very) soon.

Follow john myers and perple to ensure the next article is in your feed, scheduled for publication on Friday 23rd February at 10 am.

Cheers,

John