Promise check: Legislate so that large companies will have to report their gender pay gap publicly

At the 2022 election, Labor promised to legislate so that large companies will have to report their gender pay gap publicly. Here's how that promise is tracking.

Two construction workers looking at a notebook

In his campaign launch speech, Labor leader Anthony Albanese said fixing the "persistent, structural barriers" to women's economic security would be a "key focus of a government that I lead".

"Labor has already committed to using all of the tools within our power to close the gender pay gap," he said.

In a women's policy document released in 2022, the party pledged it would "require large companies to publish their gender pay gaps for the first time, to boost transparency and encourage action to close gender pay gaps within organisations".

"Companies already report their gender pay data to the Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA), but it's not made public. Labor will let people access information online about companies' overall pay gaps."

Before the election, the Workplace Gender Equality Act 2012 already required businesses with 100 or more employees to report gender equality indicators to the WGEA, but the agency could not publish information about individual organisations without their consent.

When Labor first announced its promise on International Women's Day in March 2021, it committed to legislate "so companies with more than 250 employees will have to report their gender pay gap publicly".

Albanese details four key elements in Labor's plan to reduce gender pay gap

Watch Mr Albanese make the promise.

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Closer to the election, on May 8, 2022, Shadow Minister for Women Tanya Plibersek told the ABC's Insiders program that the requirement would apply to "large companies".

The reference to "250 employees" was also dropped from Labor's policy platform website in the days before the poll. It promised that the new rules would apply to "large employers", in line with the women's policy document.

Assessing the promise

This promise will be delivered if, in Labor's first term, parliament passes legislation that would require large companies to publicly report their gender pay gap.

Here's how the promise is tracking:

19 May 2023

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Promise check: Legislate so that large companies will have to report their gender pay gap publicly