Australia Gender Pay Gap Reporting: What You Need to Know

To find the full text of the global pay reporting law in Australia, refer to the Workplace Gender Equality Act 2012. You can also refer to the Workplace Gender Equality Agency.

A separate Workforce Management Statistics report is required for each employing ABN (Australian Business Number). The Questionnaire and Workplace Profile reporting is for the organization as a whole.

The requirement in Australia focuses primarily on gender. The reporting requirements and metrics are designed to assess and address the gender pay gaps within organisations.

While the law doesn’t explicitly require reporting on race/ethnicity pay gaps, many organisations also analyze race and ethnicity gaps as part of their pay transparency strategy, where it is permitted by law.

Syndio’s PayEQ solution allows you to analyze pay equity and opportunity gaps across multiple dimensions, including race, gender, ethnicity, age, disability, and more. This provides a comprehensive understanding of how different groups are affected by your policies and practices.

No. In Australia, only employers with 100 or more employees for at least six months of the reporting period must submit a gender pay gap report. Global companies only need to report on their Australian entities and employees.

In Australia’s pay gap report, all employees that are employed by the organisation should be counted, including full-time, part-time, and casual employees. Employers do not need to include independent contractors who are self-employed and employees from recruitment agencies placed in your organisation (who would be included within the recruitment agency’s reporting). Syndio provides Global Pay Reports customers with detailed guidance on which employees are excluded.

The Workplace Profile report in Australia focuses on two compensation variables: base salary and total remuneration paid to the relevant employees over a 12-month reporting period, ending on their snapshot date. Base salary amounts represent the payments for ordinary work (wages, salary payments), while total remuneration represents the entire sum of payments made to an employee. Syndio provides Global Pay Reports customers with a detailed explanation of all pay components that fall under each compensation variable.

Syndio provides software and expert professional services to help multinational organisations comply with pay equity, pay reporting, and pay transparency regulations. Syndio helps you analyse, remediate, explain, and report on gaps so you can stay on top of compliance in Australia. Learn more: https://synd.io/global-pay-reporting/.

The law in Australia analyzes pay gaps, not pay equity. What’s the difference? 

An unadjusted pay gap (also called an “uncontrolled pay gap”) is the difference between the median or mean pay of two groups, such as men and women.

• Median pay gap: Imagine lining up all the earnings for two groups of employees (e.g., men and women) from lowest to highest. The median pay gap is the difference between the middle earnings in each line. It’s a good indicator of typical pay differences.
• Mean pay gap: This compares the average earnings of each group. However, it can be skewed by extremely high or low earners.

Pay equity, or the adjusted pay gap, accounts for factors that can legitimately explain differences in pay, such as performance ratings, tenure with the company, or location.

The median and mean pay gaps provide valuable insights, but they don’t tell the whole story. There may be legitimate reasons for pay differences between employees. The adjusted pay gap (pay equity) accounts for these factors, revealing whether a pay disparity truly exists (which is unlawful in many countries) so you can take corrective action. Syndio’s PayEQ software is the trusted solution for global enterprises to rapidly identify, address, and prevent pay disparities.