Frequently asked
questions
Everything you need to know about equidi.
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Gender pay gaps explained
What is the gender pay gap?
The gender pay gap is the difference between the average or median earnings of women and men across a whole organisation, industry or country, expressed as a percentage of men's earnings. It measures the overall difference in pay, not whether individuals are paid the same for the same job. A gap of 20% means women earn 80 cents for every dollar men earn.
How is the gender pay gap calculated?
The gender pay gap is calculated as (men's average pay – women's average pay) ÷ men's average pay × 100. WGEA reports gaps on base salary and on total remuneration, which includes bonuses, superannuation and overtime. It reports both average (mean) and median gaps. The median is less distorted by a few very high earners, so it's often a fairer view of a typical employee.
What's the difference between the gender pay gap and equal pay?
Equal pay means women and men are paid the same for the same or comparable work, which is a legal requirement in Australia. The gender pay gap compares average pay across the whole workforce. An organisation can pay everyone equally for equal work and still have a large gender pay gap if men hold most of the senior, higher-paid roles.
Is having a gender pay gap illegal?
No. A gender pay gap on its own isn't illegal. Paying women and men differently for the same or comparable work is, under the Fair Work Act 2009 and the Sex Discrimination Act 1984. A gap is still a signal to investigate. Large employers must report it to WGEA, and WGEA publishes the gaps of employers with 100+ employees.
What is Australia's national gender pay gap?
WGEA's most recent data puts Australia's total remuneration gender pay gap at about 21%.
What causes the gender pay gap?
The main drivers are:
Fewer women in senior and highly paid roles
Industry and occupational segregation
Women doing more part-time work and unpaid caring
Career breaks that slow progression
Bias in hiring, pay-setting and promotion decisions
An adjusted pay gap analysis separates the part explained by role and level from the part that isn't explained by those factors.
What is an adjusted (or unexplained) pay gap?
An adjusted pay gap compares women and men in comparable roles after controlling for factors such as role, level, tenure and location, usually with regression analysis. Whatever gap remains is the "unexplained" part, and it is where pay inequity is most likely. See how equidi calculates it.
What is a like-for-like pay gap?
A like-for-like pay gap compares women and men in the same role or job family at the same level. It's the simplest way to find equal-pay issues, such as two people doing the same job on different salaries. Use it alongside the organisation-wide gap, which mostly reflects representation.
WGEA reporting
What is WGEA?
WGEA is the Workplace Gender Equality Agency, the Australian Government agency that administers the Workplace Gender Equality Act 2012. It collects gender equality data from employers every year, publishes employer and industry pay gaps, and benchmarks performance against six Gender Equality Indicators.
Who has to report to WGEA?
Non-public-sector employers with 100 or more employees must report to WGEA every year. This includes private companies, not-for-profits and universities. The headcount includes full-time, part-time and casual staff, and corporate groups combine their entities. Commonwealth public sector employers with 100+ employees also report. Employers with 500+ employees have extra obligations, including gender equality targets.
When is the WGEA reporting deadline?
The WGEA reporting period runs from 1 April to 31 March. Reports are submitted between 1 April and 31 May each year, and workforce data is taken from a snapshot date within the reporting period. Start preparing payroll data well before April. Cleaning and mapping the data is usually the part that takes longest.
Does WGEA publish my company's gender pay gap?
Yes. Since 2024, WGEA has published the median gender pay gap of every employer with 100+ employees each year, using total remuneration and base salary. You can submit an optional Employer Statement explaining your gap and what you're doing about it, and it is published alongside your results.
What happens if we don't comply with WGEA reporting?
Employers that don't comply can be named publicly as non-compliant. They may also be ineligible to tender for Australian Government contracts and some grants or financial assistance. Compliance also requires sharing your WGEA Executive Summary and Industry Benchmark reports with your board.
How can we make WGEA reporting faster?
Keep your payroll and HR data in a consistent structure all year, and don't rebuild it from scratch each April. Platforms like equidi map your data to WGEA's requirements automatically, check for errors, and show your pay gap before you submit, so there are no surprises when WGEA publishes it.
Pay transparency and taking action
Can employees in Australia discuss their pay?
Yes. Since December 2022, the Fair Work Act has protected employees' right to disclose, or not disclose, their pay and conditions, and to ask colleagues about theirs. Pay secrecy clauses in employment contracts and agreements no longer apply, and employers can be penalised for including them in new contracts.
How often should we run a pay equity audit?
Run a full pay equity analysis at least once a year, ideally before your annual pay review so you can fix gaps in the same cycle. Between audits, check the impact of major decisions such as restructures, promotion rounds and new hires. Continuous monitoring stops new gaps from forming.
How do we close our gender pay gap?
There are four steps:
Measure both the organisation-wide and the adjusted gap, so you know whether the issue is representation, equal pay, or both.
Correct unexplained like-for-like differences.
Address representation through hiring, promotion, flexible work and succession planning.
Set targets, track progress and report it to your board.
Gaps close fastest when pay decisions are checked before they're made.
Does the EU Pay Transparency Directive affect Australian companies?
It does if you employ people in the EU. The directive requires EU member states to bring in pay transparency rules from June 2026. These include salary ranges in job ads, a ban on asking candidates about their pay history, employees' right to pay information, and gender pay gap reporting for larger employers. Australian employers with European operations should check their EU entities now.
