WGEA's release of aggregate results from Commonwealth public sector reporting shows the sector has made significant progress in many areas critical to achieving gender equality at work.
The sector has achieved gender-balance (40:40:20) across all remuneration quartiles, on board membership including Chair roles and in almost all manager categories. 2/5 employers have a gender pay gap in the target range. Those who haven't generally have lower gaps than the private sector. Nearly every employer offers paid parental leave in addition to the government scheme and men now account for 19% of all primary carer's parental leave taken - matching the private sector after years of lagging behind.
129 Commonwealth public sector employers, employing more than 282,000 people, reported gender equality information to WGEA for the 2024 calendar year. WGEA published individual employer gender pay gaps and other information in March 2026, but today we are releasing the aggregate results. Information for employers and the public sector is now available on the WGEA Employer Data Explorer.
The employers lodged their reports in September - October 2025. From this year, Commonwealth public sector employers will submit their gender equality reports at the same time as private sector employers (April-May) and WGEA will release the public sector data with the private sector information later this year.
The Commonwealth public sector average total remuneration gender pay gap is 7.4%. For the first time employer reporting included the pay for CEOs, casual managers and APS casuals and this is included in the gender pay gap calculation. This means a direct comparison to the 2023 results is not possible. On a like-for-like basis, excluding these employees and only including employers who reported in 2023 and 2024, the public sector's gender pay gap did not change from 2023.
Detailed reporting on employer actions to prevent and respond to sexual harassment in the workplace was mandatory for Commonwealth public sector employers for the first time in this reporting period.
The new information shows employers are taking comprehensive actions to report information about sexual harassment to senior executive and to support their employees. 93% collect information on sexual harassment in the workplace and 72% have trained trauma informed support officers compared to 38% in the private sector. Employers could improve their response by focussing attention on some further actions. For example, employers could ensure the CEO and governing body sign-off on details of the organisation's policy.
WGEA's analysis of the reports shows 3 additional areas where the public sector has an opportunity to accelerate progress towards gender equality:
using APS policies as the basis for specific organisational level strategies adapted to address the individual workplace context
assessing recruitment and promotion processes for CEOs and top quartile earners who are still more likely to be men, despite the sector being 54% women
improving the level of detailed analysed during a gender pay gap analysis and using the gaps identified to develop an action plan to improve equality.
