Employment & workplaceAgencyExists today

Workplace Gender Equality Agency

WGEA

6 December 2012 – present

Previously Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Agency (1999–2012).

Statutory agency that collects gender equality data from private sector employers with 100 or more employees, publishes employer gender pay gaps and promotes gender equality in Australian workplaces.

Names over time

Affirmative Action Agency1986–1999
Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Agency1999–2012
Workplace Gender Equality Agency2012–present

How it came into existence

Established on 6 December 2012, when the Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Amendment Act 2012 renamed the Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Agency and retitled its Act the Workplace Gender Equality Act 2012.

Renamed from Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Agency · 6 December 2012
- Employer reporting on gender equality
- Advice to employers

Legislation: Workplace Gender Equality Act 2012

Changes during its life

18 September 2013Moved to the Prime Minister and Cabinet portfolio when the Office for Women was transferred to the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet.
2023The Workplace Gender Equality Amendment (Closing the Gender Pay Gap) Act 2023 required the agency to publish the gender pay gaps of individual employers with 100 or more employees, beginning in 2024.

Main functions

Annual gender equality reporting by employers
Publication of employer gender pay gaps
Employer of Choice for Gender Equality citation
Advice and education for employers
Research on workplace gender equality

Where it sits

In the portfolio of Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet.

Type of body: Non-corporate Commonwealth entity
Portfolio: Prime Minister and Cabinet
Accountable authority: Chief Executive Officer – Workplace Gender Equality Act 2012 section 8A(3)(b)
ABN: 47 641 643 874

Lineage

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Sources