Audit data quality feedback

Each row in the employee dataset represents one employee at your organisation. The 'Employment basis' field should contain a code to indicate the nature of each person's employment. This is a mandatory field, so you need to determine the right employment basis code for each employee.

The Commission checks that you have reported employees in multiple employment basis groups. This helps ensure our systems will be able to interpret your submission correctly.

Advice on rule E_05

You should check that you have assigned an accurate employment basis code to each employee. If you believe it's appropriate for all of your employees to be in the same employment basis group, please tell us using the ‘Jobs and employment data commentary’ field in the ‘Organisation’ dataset.

If you respond to this issue by providing the requested commentary, but do not make any other changes to your data, the issue will continue to appear in the Data Quality report on the reporting platform. The Commission will review your commentary when assessing the impact of this issue on your audit's compliance.

Refer to the audit handbook(opens in a new window) for detail on topics such as:

• who counts and doesn't count as an employee(opens in a new window); and
• the data specification for the 'Employment basis(opens in a new window)' field.

E_06 Your organisation assigned the same level to all of your employees

The Gender Equality Act establishes seven workplace gender equality indicators. Two of these indicators require analysis at all levels of the workforce.

Each row in the employee dataset represents one employee at your organisation. The 'Level' field should contain a number to indicate the level of each employee.

The Commission checks that you have reported employees at more than one level of your organisation. This helps ensure you have adequate data to support a by-level analysis.

Advice on rule E_06

You should check that you have assigned an accurate level to each employee. If you believe it's appropriate for all of your employees to be at the same level, please tell us using the ‘Jobs and employment data commentary’ field in the ‘Organisation’ dataset.

Refer to the audit handbook(opens in a new window) for detail on topics such as:

• who counts and doesn't count as an employee(opens in a new window); and
• the data specification for the 'Level'(opens in a new window) field.

E_07 Your organisation reported an unexpected number of CEOs (or equivalents)

Each row in the employee dataset represents one employee at your organisation. The 'Level' field should contain a number to indicate the level of each employee. The value 0 should be reserved for your organisation's CEO or equivalent head of organisation. The 'Active' data field indicates which employees were actively employed at the end of the audit reporting period.

The Commission checks that you have reported exactly one active CEO or equivalent. This helps ensure you have included the right group of people in your employee dataset.

Advice on rule E_07

You should check that:

• you have included your CEO or equivalent head of organisation in your employee dataset;
• you haven't included board members or other non-employees in your employee dataset; and
• you have assigned levels based on each employee's role as at the end of the audit reporting period.

If you believe it's appropriate for your organisation to exclude your CEO from your employee dataset, or to have more than one active CEO, please tell us using the ‘Jobs and employment data commentary’ field in the ‘Organisation’ dataset.

If you respond to this issue by providing the requested commentary, but do not make any other changes to your data, the issue will continue to appear in the Data Quality report on the reporting platform. The Commission will review your commentary when assessing the impact of this issue on your audit's compliance.

Refer to the audit handbook(opens in a new window) for detail on topics such as:

• who counts and doesn't count as an employee(opens in a new window); and
• the data specification for the 'Level(opens in a new window)' field.

E_08 Your organisation used the Recruited value M, which is reserved for Machinery of Government changes

Each row in the employee dataset represents one employee at your organisation. The 'Recruited' field should contain a code to indicate whether each person was recruited during the audit reporting period.

There is a special code M available for use by Victorian public service (VPS) departments. This code is used for employees that were transferred into the organisation due to a machinery of government change.

The Commission checks that you haven't used this code unless your organisation is a VPS department. This helps ensure you haven't made mistakes when preparing your recruitment data.

Advice on rule E_08

You should remove the code M from your recruitment data. If you believe your organisation was affected by a machinery of government change and should be allowed to use code M, please tell us using the ‘Jobs and employment data commentary’ field in the ‘Organisation’ dataset.

If you respond to this issue by providing the requested commentary, but do not make any other changes to your data, the issue will continue to appear in the Data Quality report on the reporting platform. The Commission will review your commentary when assessing the impact of this issue on your audit's compliance.

Refer to the audit handbook(opens in a new window) for detail on topics such as:

• who counts and doesn't count as an employee(opens in a new window); and
• the data specification for the 'Recruited(opens in a new window)' field.

E_09 Your organisation used the Exited value M, which is reserved for Machinery of Government changes

Each row in the employee dataset represents one employee at your organisation. The 'Exited' field should contain a code to indicate whether each person was recruited during the audit reporting period.

There is a special code M available for use by Victorian public service (VPS) departments. This code is used for employees that were transferred out of the organisation due to a machinery of government change.

The Commission checks that you haven't used this code unless your organisation is a VPS department. This helps ensure you haven't made mistakes when preparing your exits data.

Advice on rule E_09

You should remove the code M from your recruitment data. If you believe your organisation was affected by a machinery of government change and should be allowed to use code M, please tell us using the ‘Jobs and employment data commentary’ field in the ‘Organisation’ dataset.

If you respond to this issue by providing the requested commentary, but do not make any other changes to your data, the issue will continue to appear in the Data Quality report on the reporting platform. The Commission will review your commentary when assessing the impact of this issue on your audit's compliance.

Refer to the audit handbook(opens in a new window) for detail on topics such as:

• who counts and doesn't count as an employee(opens in a new window); and
• the data specification for the 'Exited'(opens in a new window) field.

E_10 Your organisation used more than 3 unique workforce group names

Each row in the employee dataset represents one employee at your organisation. In 2023, organisations have the option to segment their employees into multiple distinct workforces using the 'Workforce group' field.

If the workforce groups you designate meet the specifications listed in the audit handbook(opens in a new window), they may be included in future research, reports and publications that include your organisation's audit results.

The Commission checks that you have used no more than 3 unique group names. This helps ensure the Commission will be able to use your workforce groups in future research, reports and publications.

Advice on rule E_10

If your audit fails the test for rule E_10, the Commission recommends that you revise your audit data to use fewer workforce groups, or leave this field blank.

Refer to the audit handbook(opens in a new window) for detail on topics such as:

• who counts and doesn't count as an employee(opens in a new window); and
• the data specification for the 'Workforce group'(opens in a new window) field.

E_11 Your organisation did not assign all employees to a workforce group

Each row in the employee dataset represents one employee at your organisation. In 2023, organisations have the option to segment their employees into multiple distinct workforces using the 'Workforce group' field.

If the workforce groups you designate meet the specifications listed in the audit handbook(opens in a new window), they may be included in future research, reports and publications that include your organisation's audit results.

The Commission checks that you have either assigned every employee to a workforce group, or left this field blank. This helps ensure the Commission will be able to use your workforce groups in future research, reports and publications.

Advice on rule E_11

If your audit fails the test for rule E_11, the Commission recommends that you revise your audit data. If you can't assign every employee to a workforce group, you should leave this field blank for all employees.

Refer to the audit handbook(opens in a new window) for detail on topics such as:

• who counts and doesn't count as an employee(opens in a new window); and
• the data specification for the 'Workforce group'(opens in a new window) field.

E_12 Your organisation reported a workforce group with fewer than 10 active employees

Each row in the employee dataset represents one employee at your organisation. In 2023, organisations have the option to segment their employees into multiple distinct workforces using the 'Workforce group' field.

If the workforce groups you designate meet the specifications listed in the audit handbook(opens in a new window), they may be included in future research, reports and publications that include your organisation's audit results.

The Commission checks that each of your workforce group includes at least 10 active employees. This helps ensure the Commission will be able to use your workforce groups in future research, reports and publications.

Advice on rule E_12

If your audit fails the test for rule E_12, the Commission recommends that you revise your audit data. If any of your workforce groups are smaller than 10 employees, you should leave this field blank for all employees.

Refer to the audit handbook(opens in a new window) for detail on topics such as:

• who counts and doesn't count as an active employee(opens in a new window); and
• the data specification for the 'Workforce group'(opens in a new window) field.

E_13 Your organisation assigned the same occupation code to all employees

The Gender Equality Act establishes seven workplace gender equality indicators. One of these indicators requires analysis of gendered segregation within the workforce. To facilitate this analysis, you need to classify your active employees by their occupation.

Each row in the employee dataset represents one employee at your organisation. The 'Occupation code' field should contain a code to indicate the occupation of each active employee. Inactive employees should be coded with the value of ‘099888’.

The Commission checks that you have reported employees in more than one occupation group. This helps ensure you have adequate data to support a gendered segregation analysis.

Advice on rule E_13

You should check that you have assigned each active employee to an appropriate occupation code. If you believe it's appropriate for all of your employees to be in the same occupation group, please tell us using the ‘Jobs and employment data commentary’ field in the ‘Organisation’ dataset.

If you respond to this issue by providing the requested commentary, but do not make any other changes to your data, the issue will continue to appear in the Data Quality report on the reporting platform. The Commission will review your commentary when assessing the impact of this issue on your audit's compliance.

Refer to the audit handbook(opens in a new window) for detail on topics such as:

• who counts and doesn't count as an active employee(opens in a new window); and
• the data specification for the 'Occupation code'(opens in a new window) field.

E_14 Your organisation classified one or more active employees under occupation code 099888 (Response inadequately described)

The Gender Equality Act establishes seven workplace gender equality indicators. One of these indicators requires analysis of gendered segregation within the workforce. To facilitate this analysis, you need to classify your active employees by their occupation.

Each row in the employee dataset represents one employee at your organisation. The 'Occupation code' field should contain a code to indicate the occupation of each active employee.

The special occupation code ‘099888’ is reserved for inactive employees and should not be applied to active employees, without a suitable explanation.

The Commission checks that you have assigned a meaningful occupation code to each active employee. This helps ensure you have adequate data to support a gendered segregation analysis.

Advice on rule E_14

Excluding active employees from your occupational segregation analysis may distort the results.

If you've used code ‘099888’ for a significant number of active employees, the Commission will likely ask you to resubmit. You are expected to make an effort to classify all active employees by occupation.

You should try to assign a meaningful occupation code to each active employee. Industry-specific guidance is available to help you assign occupation codes to your employees consistently and efficiently:

• Local government: ANZSCO guidance for local councils(opens in a new window)
• Health sector: Health sector data collection(opens in a new window) (PCR and ANZSCO guide)
• All other organisations: ANZSCO coding guides(opens in a new window)

If you're unable to classify all of your active employees using the coding guidance for your industry, you can also review a list of all accepted codes in the workforce reporting template. At minimum, try to classify each employee into one of the eight major occupation groups (noting 'nfd' means 'not further defined'):

• 100000 Managers nfd
• 200000 Professionals nfd
• 300000 Technicians and Trades Workers nfd
• 400000 Community and Personal Service Workers nfd
• 500000 Clerical and Administrative Workers nfd
• 600000 Sales Workers nfd
• 700000 Machinery Operators and Drivers nfd
• 800000 Labourers nfd

If you believe it's appropriate for some of your active employees to be unclassified, please tell us using the ‘Jobs and employment data commentary’ field in the ‘Organisation’ dataset.

If you respond to this issue by providing the requested commentary, but do not make any other changes to your data, the issue will continue to appear in the Data Quality report on the reporting platform. The Commission will review your commentary when assessing the impact of this issue on your audit's compliance.

Refer to the audit handbook(opens in a new window) for detail on topics such as:

• who counts and doesn't count as an active employee(opens in a new window); and
• the data specification for the 'Occupation code'(opens in a new window) field.

E_15 Your organisation reported a base salary of -999999 for one or more active employees

The Gender Equality Act establishes seven workplace gender equality indicators. One of these indicators requires analysis of remuneration. To facilitate this analysis, you need to determine the base salary for each of your active employees. There is a special code -999999 available for use for inactive employees only.

The Commission checks that you have reported a meaningful base salary for each active employee. This helps ensure you have adequate data to support a pay equity analysis.

Advice on rule E_15

You should check that you have provided a meaningful base salary figure for all active employees in your employee dataset. If you believe it's appropriate to exclude active employees from your pay equity analysis, please tell us using the ‘Remuneration data commentary’ field in the ‘Organisation’ dataset.

If you respond to this issue by providing the requested commentary, but do not make any other changes to your data, the issue will continue to appear in the Data Quality report on the reporting platform. The Commission will review your commentary when assessing the impact of this issue on your audit's compliance.

Refer to the audit handbook(opens in a new window) for detail on topics such as:

• who counts and doesn't count as an active employee(opens in a new window); and
• the data specification for the 'Base salary'(opens in a new window) field.

E_17 Your organisation reported total remuneration of -999999 for one or more active employees

The Gender Equality Act establishes seven workplace gender equality indicators. One of these indicators requires analysis of remuneration. To facilitate this analysis, you need to determine total remuneration for each of your active employees. There is a special code -999999 available for use for inactive employees only.

The Commission checks that you have reported a meaningful total remuneration value for each active employee. This helps ensure you have adequate data to support a pay equity analysis.

Advice on rule E_17

You should check that you have provided a meaningful total remuneration figure for all active employees in your employee dataset. If you believe it's appropriate to exclude active employees from your pay equity analysis, please tell us using the ‘Remuneration data commentary’ field in the ‘Organisation’ dataset.

If you respond to this issue by providing the requested commentary, but do not make any other changes to your data, the issue will continue to appear in the Data Quality report on the reporting platform. The Commission will review your commentary when assessing the impact of this issue on your audit's compliance.

Refer to the audit handbook(opens in a new window) for detail on topics such as:

• who counts and doesn't count as an active employee(opens in a new window); and
• the data specification for the 'Total remuneration'(opens in a new window) field.

E_18 Your organisation reported total remuneration values that were less than base salary plus superannuation

Each row in the employee dataset represents one employee at your organisation. The 'Total remuneration' field should contain each employee's full-time equivalent annualised salary, plus any other payments made to the employee during the audit reporting period, including annualised, full-time equivalent superannuation. An employee's total remuneration should not be lower than their base salary plus minimum superannuation payments – approximately 10%.

The Commission checks that each employee's total remuneration is greater than or equal to their base salary plus 10% for minimum superannuation. This helps ensure you have correctly calculated each employee's total remuneration, starting from their base salary.

Advice on rule E_18

Our gender pay gap calculation tools require that your pay data meets our specifications. You should double-check your data if any employee's total remuneration is less than their base salary plus that employee’s minimum superannuation payments. Please refer to the Remuneration Resources(opens in a new window) page on our website if you aren't sure how to determine someone's annualised full-time equivalent base salary.

If you believe it's appropriate to report these remuneration values please advise us why using the ‘Remuneration data commentary’ field in the ‘Organisation’ dataset.

If you respond to this issue by providing the requested commentary, but do not make any other changes to your data, the issue will continue to appear in the Data Quality report on the reporting platform. The Commission will review your commentary when assessing the impact of this issue on your audit's compliance.

Refer to the audit handbook(opens in a new window) for detail on topics such as:

• who counts and doesn't count as an active employee(opens in a new window); and
• the data specification for the 'Total remuneration'(opens in a new window) field.

E_19 Your organisation reported weekly pay values outside of the expected range

Each row in the employee dataset represents one employee at your organisation. The 'Weekly pay' field should contain an estimate of an employee's base rate of pay for one week of work at full-time hours, as at the end of the audit reporting period.

An employee's weekly pay should not be lower than what someone would earn in a week working full-time on the national minimum wage. This equates to about $916 in the reporting period commencing 1 July 2024.

The Commission checks that each employee's weekly pay is at least $916. This helps ensure you have correctly converted each employee's pay to a full-time equivalent.

Advice on rule E_19

Our gender pay gap calculation tools require annualised full-time equivalent pay data. You should double-check your data if any active employee has a weekly pay value below $916. Please refer to the Remuneration Resources(opens in a new window) page on our website if you aren't sure how to determine someone's full-time equivalent weekly pay.

If you believe some of your employees genuinely had weekly pay below $916, please tell us using the ‘Remuneration data commentary’ field in the ‘Organisation’ dataset.

Acceptable explanations may include the following

• employees below 18 years of age,
• trainees and apprentices
• disability employment programs such as employees paid under the Supported Employment Services Award.

If you respond to this issue by providing the requested commentary, but do not make any other changes to your data, the issue will continue to appear in the Data Quality report on the reporting platform. The Commission will review your commentary when assessing the impact of this issue on your audit's compliance.

Refer to the audit handbook(opens in a new window) for detail on topics such as:

• who counts and doesn't count as an active employee(opens in a new window); and
• the data specification for the 'Weekly pay'(opens in a new window) field.

E_20 Your organisation provided a multi-select list of formal flexible work type values that includes 'Data unavailable'

Each row in the employee dataset represents one employee at your organisation. The 'Formal flexible work type' field should contain a code to indicate the type(s) of flexible work each employee uses. If an employee uses more than one kind of flexible work arrangement, you should format the selections as a list delimited with vertical bars like this: A|B|C

The value 'Data unavailable' should only be used if your organisation can't provide flexible work type data at this time. If you've provided a list of flexible work types for an employee, it wouldn't make sense for one of those values to be 'Data unavailable'.

The Commission checks that lists of flexible work type codes do not include the value 'Data unavailable'. This helps ensure you haven't made mistakes when preparing your flexible work data.

Advice on rule E_20

You should remove the value 'Data unavailable' from any lists of cultural identity values. If you believe it's appropriate for a list of flexible work types to include the value 'Data unavailable', please tell us using the ‘Flexible work and leave data commentary’ field in the ‘Organisation’ dataset.

Refer to the audit handbook(opens in a new window) for detail on topics such as:

• who does and doesn't count as an employee(opens in a new window); and
• the data specification for the 'Formal flexible work type'(opens in a new window) field.

E_21 Your organisation provided unique reference values that contain personally identifiable information

Workplace gender audits should not include any personally identifiable information about your employees. To protect privacy while allowing for accurate data analysis and tracking across datasets, you must ensure you do not include any personally identifiable information in any element of your audit submission.

The Commission checks to determine if any provided data is at risk of identifying individuals. This includes checking unique reference values provided in your dataset and commentary provided in the organisation dataset.

Advice on rule E_21

You should inspect the unique reference values in your employee dataset to confirm they do not contain personally identifiable information, such as names or email addresses. If you find personal details, you must replace these values with a fully anonymous alphanumeric code (such as a randomised string) that cannot be traced back to the individual employee before resubmitting. Refer to the audit handbook(opens in a new window) for detail on topics such as:

• the data specification for the 'Unique reference'(opens in a new window) field.

E_23 Your organisation had a large number of employees who declined to provide their gender

The Gender Equality Act requires audits to be based on gender-disaggregated data. To show progress on the workplace gender equality indicators, you need to conduct a gendered analysis.

Each row in the employee dataset represents one employee at your organisation. The 'Gender' field should contain a code to indicate the gender of each employee. One of the available codes is P, which designates someone who did not disclose their gender.

The Commission checks that you were able to provide gender data for most of your employees. This helps ensure you have adequate data to support a gendered analysis.

Advice on rule E_23

The Commission may exclude some of your audit data from our publications if you do not take action. When your data is published to our Insights Portal(opens in a new window), measures that rely on this data may be unpopulated or have a message indicating that suitable data was not supplied.

Refer to the audit handbook for detail on topic such as:

• who counts and doesn't count as an employee(opens in a new window); and
• the data specification for the 'Gender'(opens in a new window) field.

E_24 Your organisation did not assign a level between 0 and -15 to each employee

Each row in the employee dataset represents one employee at your organisation. The 'Level' field should contain a number to indicate the level of each employee.

We ask organisations to assign a level to every employee, ranging from 0 to -15.

Due to a reporting platform bug, organisations were able to submit data with level values ranging from -16 to -30. The Commission checks that you have not used these values in your data. This is to ensure our reports will be able to display your audit results correctly.

Advice on rule E_24

The Commission may exclude some of your audit data from our publications if you do not take action. When your data is published to our Insights Portal(opens in a new window), measures that rely on this data may be unpopulated or have a message indicating that suitable data was not supplied.

Refer to the audit handbook (opens in a new window)for detail on topic such as:

• who counts and doesn't count as an employee(opens in a new window); and

the data specification for the 'Level'(opens in a new window) field.

E_25 Your organisation left the Career Development Training field blank for one or more employees

Each row in the employee dataset represents one employee at your organisation. The 'Career development training' field should contain a code to indicate whether each person participated in career development training.

We ask organisations to enter a code for every employee, rather than leaving the field blank. Organisations should use the code DU to signify that this information is not available.

Due to a reporting platform bug, organisations were able to submit data with blanks in this field. The Commission checks that you have entered a value in this field for every employee. This is to ensure our reports will be able to display your audit results correctly.

Advice on rule E_25

The Commission may exclude some of your audit data from our publications if you do not take action. When your data is published to our Insights Portal(opens in a new window), measures that rely on this data may be unpopulated or have a message indicating that suitable data was not supplied.

Refer to the audit handbook (opens in a new window)for detail on topic such as:

• who counts and doesn't count as an employee(opens in a new window); and
• the data specification for the 'Career development training'(opens in a new window) field.

E_26 Your organisation reported total remuneration values outside of the expected range

The Gender Equality Act establishes seven workplace gender equality indicators. One of these indicators requires an analysis of remuneration across your workforce. To facilitate an accurate analysis, you need to report the total remuneration for each of your employees reflecting a full-time, full-year equivalent amount.

The Commission checks that the reported total remuneration values fall within an expected range. This helps flag potential data entry errors, such as annualisation errors, ensuring the integrity of your pay equity.

Advice on rule E_26

This rule indicates that there were some anomalous total remuneration results detected that the Commission assessed as low impact. You do not need to address this issue, however, please review your total remuneration results to ensure that all results are reported correctly in future submissions.

Review the flagged records in your employee dataset to confirm that the reported total remuneration figures are correct. If the values are accurate and reflect exceptional but genuine remuneration arrangements, context should be provided using the 'Remuneration data commentary'(opens in a new window) field in the 'Organisation' dataset(opens in a new window).

Refer to the audit handbook(opens in a new window) for detail on topics such as:

• the data specification for the 'Total remuneration'(opens in a new window) field; and
• providing context in the 'Organisation' dataset(opens in a new window).

E_27 Your organisation did not provide meaningful remuneration data for all active employees

The Gender Equality Act establishes seven workplace gender equality indicators. One of these indicators requires an analysis of remuneration across your workforce. To facilitate this analysis, you must provide comprehensive and accurate remuneration figures for every active employee.

The Commission checks that you have reported meaningful and accurate base salary and total remuneration values for all active employees. This helps ensure that your dataset is complete and can adequately support a robust pay equity analysis.

Advice on rule E_27

You should check your employee dataset to ensure that valid remuneration figures have been provided for all active employees. If you believe there is a valid reason why meaningful remuneration data cannot be provided for certain active employees, please ensure that ‘-999999’ is reported for the remuneration field(s) that cannot be reported for those employees and provide a detailed explanation using the 'Remuneration data commentary'(opens in a new window) field in the 'Organisation' dataset(opens in a new window).

Refer to the audit handbook(opens in a new window) for detail on topics such as:

• who counts and doesn't count as an active employee(opens in a new window);
• the data specification for the 'Base salary'(opens in a new window) field; and
• the data specification for the 'Total remuneration'(opens in a new window) field.

E_28 Your organisation did not include all employees in its data

The Gender Equality Act establishes seven workplace gender equality indicators. To accurately assess these indicators, including workforce composition and pay equity, your organisation must report on all employees who fall within the scope of the Act. Excluding employees compromises the integrity of the dataset and misrepresents your true workforce profile.

The Commission checks that your submitted dataset accounts for your entire workforce by reviewing your reported numbers of both active and inactive employee and provided commentary. This helps ensure that the data provides a complete and accurate foundation for your workplace gender audit and subsequent progress reporting.

Advice on rule E_28

You should review your employee dataset to ensure that all eligible staff, who worked for your organisation during the reporting period, including casual, part-time, and fixed-term workers, have been included in your submission. If there is a valid reason for a discrepancy in your headcount or if certain employee groups were legitimately excluded, please provide an explanation using the 'Workforce data commentary'(opens in a new window) field in the 'Organisation' dataset(opens in a new window).

Refer to the audit handbook(opens in a new window) for detail on topics such as:

• who counts and doesn't count as an employee(opens in a new window);
• the data specification for the ‘Active’ field; and
• general inclusion rules for the Employee dataset(opens in a new window).

E_29 Your organisation included non-employees in its employee data

The Gender Equality Act establishes seven workplace gender equality indicators, which require an accurate assessment of your defined workforce. To ensure a precise analysis of workforce composition and pay equity, your dataset must only include individuals who are legally considered employees under the Act. Including non-employees, such as external contractors or volunteers, can significantly skew your results and misrepresent your organisation's true gender equality status.

The Commission checks that your submitted dataset exclusively contains valid employees and excludes non-applicable personnel. This helps maintain data integrity and ensures that comparisons across the Victorian public sector remain accurate and meaningful.

Advice on rule E_29

You should review your employee dataset to ensure that any non-employees, such as independent contractors, agency staff, or volunteers, have been removed before submission. If you have unique employment arrangements and believe specific individuals should be included, please explain this using the 'Workforce data commentary'(opens in a new window) field in the 'Organisation' dataset(opens in a new window).

Refer to the audit handbook(opens in a new window) for detail on topics such as:

• who counts and doesn't count as an active employee(opens in a new window); and
• general inclusion rules for the Employee dataset(opens in a new window).

E_30 Your organisation reported over 30% of employees as senior leaders in the Employee Type field

Each row in the employee dataset represents one employee at your organisation. The ‘Employee type’ field indicates whether employees are senior leaders or not.

Ensure that only employees with the authority and responsibility for planning, directing and controlling the activities of an organisation, directly or indirectly. This should include the head of your organisation as well as other executives.

This is not intended to include team leaders and managers. Please ensure that you have only listed high-level senior leaders as 'Senior leaders' in your Employee type field.

The Commission checks that less than 30% of employees were marked as senior leaders. This helps ensure that the correct employees have been marked as senior leaders.

Advice on rule E_30

The Commission may exclude some of your audit data from our publications if you do not take action. When your data is published to our Insights Portal(opens in a new window), measures that rely on this data may be unpopulated or have a message indicating that suitable data was not supplied.

While you do not need to address this issue in 2025, please note that The Commissioner expects that the newly required fields will be meaningfully and comprehensively populated in your 2027 audit and beyond.

E_31 Your organisation reported a high proportion of employees as inactive

The Gender Equality Act establishes seven workplace gender equality indicators. Addressing all of these indicators requires analysis of remuneration and occupation. To facilitate this analysis, you need to accurately report each of active employees.

Each row in the employee dataset represents one employee at your organisation. The 'Active' data field indicates which employees were actively employed at the end of the audit reporting period.

The Commission checks that less than 50% of the employees reported in your Employee dataset are reported as inactive. This helps ensure you have correctly reported your active employees.

Advice on rule E_31

You should check that you included all your employees in your employee dataset, and that you have applied the ‘Active’ field correctly. If you believe it's appropriate for your audit data to report over 50% of employees as inactive, please tell us using the ‘Workforce data commentary’ field in the ‘Organisation’ dataset.

If you respond to this issue by providing the requested commentary, but do not make any other changes to your data, the issue will continue to appear in the Data Quality report on the reporting platform. The Commission will review your commentary when assessing the impact of this issue on your audit's compliance.

Refer to the audit handbook(opens in a new window) for detail on topics such as:

• who counts and doesn't count as an employee(opens in a new window); and
• the data specification for the 'Active'(opens in a new window) field.

E_32 Your organisation reported an abnormal number of recruitments

Each row in the employee dataset represents one employee at your organisation. The 'Exited' field should contain a code to indicate whether each employee exited the organisation during the audit reporting period.

Your organisation listed all employees for which exit data was available (i.e. was not 'DU'), as having the same value ('Y' or 'N') in the 'Exited' field.

Advice on this rule

You should check that you have provided accurate and meaningful recruitment results where they are reported. To provide an explanation use the ‘Jobs and employment data commentary’ field in the ‘Organisation’ dataset.

If you respond to this issue by providing the requested commentary, but do not make any other changes to your data, the issue will continue to appear in the Data Quality report on the reporting platform. The Commission will review your commentary when assessing the impact of this issue on your audit's compliance.

While you do not need to address this issue in 2025, please note that The Commissioner expects that the newly required fields will be meaningfully and comprehensively populated in your 2027 audit and beyond.

Refer to the audit handbook(opens in a new window) for detail on topics such as:

• the data specification for the 'Recruited'(opens in a new window) field.

E_33 Your organisation reported an abnormal number of exits

Each row in the employee dataset represents one employee at your organisation. The 'Exited' field should contain a code to indicate whether each employee exited the organisation during the audit reporting period.

Your organisation listed all employees for which exit data was available (i.e. was not 'DU'), as having the same value ('Y' or 'N') in the 'Exited' field.

Advice on this rule

You should check that you have provided accurate and meaningful exits results where they are reported. To provide an explanation use the ‘Jobs and employment data commentary’ field in the ‘Organisation’ dataset.

If you respond to this issue by providing the requested commentary, but do not make any other changes to your data, the issue will continue to appear in the Data Quality report on the reporting platform. The Commission will review your commentary when assessing the impact of this issue on your audit's compliance.

While you do not need to address this issue in 2025, please note that The Commissioner expects that the newly required fields will be meaningfully and comprehensively populated in your 2027 audit and beyond.

For further information and guidance, refer to the audit handbook(opens in a new window) for:

• the data specification for the 'Exited’(opens in a new window) field in the employee dataset.

E_34 Your organisation reported abnormal or suspect base salary values for some employees

The Gender Equality Act establishes seven workplace gender equality indicators. One of these indicators requires analysis of remuneration. To facilitate this analysis, you need to determine the base salary for each of your active employees. There is a special code ‘-999999’ available for use for inactive employees only, and rules that check for base salaries below minimum wage.

The Commission checks that you have not reported base salaries of exactly $47,600 or $999,999 for active employees. This helps ensure you have reported legitimate base salaries for all active employees.

Advice on rule E_34

You should check that you have provided a meaningful base salary figure for all active employees in your employee dataset. If you believe that you have active employees with base salaries of exactly $47,600 or $999,999, please tell us using the ‘Remuneration data commentary’ field in the ‘Organisation’ dataset.

If you respond to this issue by providing the requested commentary, but do not make any other changes to your data, the issue will continue to appear in the Data Quality report on the reporting platform. The Commission will review your commentary when assessing the impact of this issue on your audit's compliance.

Refer to the audit handbook(opens in a new window) for detail on topics such as:

• who counts and doesn't count as an active employee(opens in a new window); and
• the data specification for the 'Base salary'(opens in a new window) field.
• who counts and doesn't count as an active employee(opens in a new window); and
• the data specification for the 'Total remuneration(opens in a new window)’ field.

E_35 Your organisation reported abnormal or suspect total remuneration values for some employees

The Gender Equality Act establishes seven workplace gender equality indicators. One of these indicators requires analysis of remuneration. To facilitate this analysis, you need to determine the total remuneration for each of your active employees. There is a special code ‘-999999’ available for use for inactive employees only, and rules that check for total remunerations below minimum wage.

The Commission checks that you have not reported total remunerations of exactly $47,600 or $999,999 for active employees. This helps ensure you have reported legitimate total remunerations for all active employees.

Advice on rule E_35

You should check that you have provided a meaningful total remuneration figure for all active employees in your employee dataset. If you believe that you have active employees with total remunerations of exactly $47,600 or $999,999, please tell us using the ‘Remuneration data commentary’ field in the ‘Organisation’ dataset.

If you respond to this issue by providing the requested commentary, but do not make any other changes to your data, the issue will continue to appear in the Data Quality report on the reporting platform. The Commission will review your commentary when assessing the impact of this issue on your audit's compliance.

Refer to the audit handbook(opens in a new window) for detail on topics such as:

• who counts and doesn't count as an active employee(opens in a new window); and
• the data specification for the 'Total remuneration(opens in a new window)’ field.

E_36 Your organisation reported abnormal or suspect weekly pay values for some employees

Your organisation reported potentially unexpected weekly pay values of exactly minimum wage or $999,999. The weekly minimum wage in the 2025 reporting period was $916.

Advice on this rule

If these are legitimate and apply to five or more active employees, tell us using the ‘Remuneration data commentary’ field in the ‘Organisation’ dataset.

E_37 Your organisation reported an abnormal number of promotions

Your organisation listed all employees for which promotion data was available (i.e. was not 'DU'), as having the same value ('Y' or 'N') in the 'Promoted' field.

Advice on rule E_37

You should check that you have provided accurate and meaningful promotion results where they are reported. To provide an explanation use the ‘Jobs and employment data commentary’ field in the ‘Organisation’ dataset.

If you respond to this issue by providing the requested commentary, but do not make any other changes to your data, the issue will continue to appear in the Data Quality report on the reporting platform. The Commission will review your commentary when assessing the impact of this issue on your audit's compliance.

While you do not need to address this issue in 2025, please note that The Commissioner expects that the newly required fields will be meaningfully and comprehensively populated in your 2027 audit and beyond.

For further information and guidance, refer to the audit handbook(opens in a new window) for:

• the data specification for the 'Promoted’(opens in a new window) field in the employee dataset.

E_38 Your organisation reported an abnormal amount of career development training

Your organisation listed all employees for which career development data was available (i.e. was not 'DU'), as having the same value ('Y' or 'N') in the 'Career development training' field.

Advice on rule E_38

You should check that you have provided accurate and meaningful career development training results where they are reported. To provide an explanation use the ‘Jobs and employment data commentary’ field in the ‘Organisation’ dataset.

If you respond to this issue by providing the requested commentary, but do not make any other changes to your data, the issue will continue to appear in the Data Quality report on the reporting platform. The Commission will review your commentary when assessing the impact of this issue on your audit's compliance.

While you do not need to address this issue in 2025, please note that The Commissioner expects that the newly required fields will be meaningfully and comprehensively populated in your 2027 audit and beyond.

For further information and guidance, refer to the audit handbook(opens in a new window) for:

• the data specification for the ‘Career development training(opens in a new window)’ field in the employee dataset.

E_39 Your organisation reported an abnormal amount of employees reported with higher duties

Your organisation listed all employees for which higher duties data was available (i.e. was not 'DU'), as having the same value ('Y' or 'N') in the 'Higher duties' field.

Advice on rule E_39

You should check that you have provided accurate and meaningful higher duties results where they are reported. To provide an explanation use the ‘Jobs and employment data commentary’ field in the ‘Organisation’ dataset.

If you respond to this issue by providing the requested commentary, but do not make any other changes to your data, the issue will continue to appear in the Data Quality report on the reporting platform. The Commission will review your commentary when assessing the impact of this issue on your audit's compliance.

While you do not need to address this issue in 2025, please note that The Commissioner expects that the newly required fields will be meaningfully and comprehensively populated in your 2027 audit and beyond.

For further information and guidance, refer to the audit handbook(opens in a new window) for:

• the data specification for the ‘Higher duties(opens in a new window)’ field in the employee dataset.

E_40 Your organisation reported an abnormal amount of employees reported with internal secondments

Your organisation listed all employees for which secondments data was available (i.e. was not 'DU'), as having the same value ('Y' or 'N') in the 'Internal secondment' field.

Advice on rule E_40

You should check that you have provided accurate and meaningful internal secondment results where they are reported. To provide an explanation use the ‘Jobs and employment data commentary’ field in the ‘Organisation’ dataset.

If you respond to this issue by providing the requested commentary, but do not make any other changes to your data, the issue will continue to appear in the Data Quality report on the reporting platform. The Commission will review your commentary when assessing the impact of this issue on your audit's compliance.

While you do not need to address this issue in 2025, please note that The Commissioner expects that the newly required fields will be meaningfully and comprehensively populated in your 2027 audit and beyond.

For further information and guidance, refer to the audit handbook(opens in a new window) for:

the data specification for the ‘Internal secondment(opens in a new window)’ field in the employee dataset.

E_41 Your organisation reported an abnormal amount of employees reported with formal flexible work arrangements

Your organisation listed all employees for which formal flexible work arrangements data was available (i.e. was not 'DU'), as having the same value ('Y' or 'N') in the 'Formal flexible work arrangement' field.

Advice on rule E_41

You should check that you have provided accurate and meaningful formal flexible work arrangement results where they are reported. To provide an explanation use the ‘Jobs and employment data commentary’ field in the ‘Organisation’ dataset.

If you respond to this issue by providing the requested commentary, but do not make any other changes to your data, the issue will continue to appear in the Data Quality report on the reporting platform. The Commission will review your commentary when assessing the impact of this issue on your audit's compliance.

While you do not need to address this issue in 2025, please note that The Commissioner expects that the newly required fields will be meaningfully and comprehensively populated in your 2027 audit and beyond.

For further information and guidance, refer to the audit handbook(opens in a new window) for:

the data specification for the ‘Formal flexible work arrangements(opens in a new window)’ field in the employee dataset.

E_42 Your organisation reported paid parental leave amounts of over 52 weeks for some employees

The Gender Equality Act establishes seven workplace gender equality indicators. One of these indicators requires analysis of availability and utilisation of terms, conditions and practices relating to working arrangements supporting employees with family or caring responsibilities. To facilitate this analysis, you need to determine the weeks of paid parental leave taken by each of your employees.

Each row in the employee dataset represents one employee at your organisation. The 'Weeks of paid parental leave' data field indicates how many weeks of paid parental leave for an entitlement to parental leave ending within the reporting period that an employee took.

The Commission checks that you have not reported over 52 weeks of paid parental leave for any employees. This helps ensure you have accurate data to support analysis of parental leave utilisation.

Advice on rule E_42

The Commission may exclude some of your audit data from our publications if you do not take action. When your data is published to our Insights Portal(opens in a new window), measures that rely on this data may be unpopulated or have a message indicating that suitable data was not supplied.

You should check that you have provided accurate paid parental leave results and provide an explanation for any results that are confirmed to be higher than 52 weeks. To provide an explanation use the ‘Flexible work and leave data commentary’ field in the ‘Organisation’ dataset.

If you respond to this issue by providing the requested commentary, but do not make any other changes to your data, the issue will continue to appear in the Data Quality report on the reporting platform. The Commission will review your commentary when assessing the impact of this issue on your audit's compliance.

While you do not need to address this issue in 2025, please note that the ‘Data unavailable’ option for this field will be removed from 2027. The Commissioner expects that the newly required fields will be meaningfully and comprehensively populated in your 2027 audit and beyond

Refer to the audit handbook(opens in a new window) for detail on topics such as:

• the data specification for the 'weeks of paid parental leave'(opens in a new window) field.

E_43 Your organisation reported unpaid parental leave amounts of over 104 weeks (2 years) for some employees

The Gender Equality Act establishes seven workplace gender equality indicators. One of these indicators requires analysis of availability and utilisation of terms, conditions and practices relating to working arrangements supporting employees with family or caring responsibilities. To facilitate this analysis, you need to determine the weeks of unpaid parental leave taken by each of your employees.

Each row in the employee dataset represents one employee at your organisation. The 'Weeks of unpaid parental leave' data field indicates how many weeks of unpaid parental leave for an entitlement to parental leave ending within the reporting period that an employee took.

The Commission checks that you have not reported over 104 weeks of unpaid parental leave for any employees. This helps ensure you have accurate data to support analysis of parental leave utilisation.

Advice on rule E_43

The Commission may exclude some of your audit data from our publications if you do not take action. When your data is published to our Insights Portal(opens in a new window), measures that rely on this data may be unpopulated or have a message indicating that suitable data was not supplied.

You should check that you have provided accurate unpaid parental leave results and provide an explanation for any results that are confirmed to be higher than 104 weeks. To provide an explanation use the ‘Flexible work and leave data commentary’ field in the ‘Organisation’ dataset.

If you respond to this issue by providing the requested commentary, but do not make any other changes to your data, the issue will continue to appear in the Data Quality report on the reporting platform. The Commission will review your commentary when assessing the impact of this issue on your audit's compliance.

While you do not need to address this issue in 2025, please note that the ‘Data unavailable’ option for this field will be removed from 2027. The Commissioner expects that the newly required fields will be meaningfully and comprehensively populated in your 2027 audit and beyond

Refer to the audit handbook(opens in a new window) for detail on topics such as:

• the data specification for the 'weeks of unpaid parental leave’(opens in a new window) field.

E_44 Your organisation reported no employees who took either paid or unpaid parental leave

The Commission may exclude some of your audit data from our publications if you do not take action. When your data is published to our Insights Portal(opens in a new window), measures that rely on this data may be unpopulated or have a message indicating that suitable data was not supplied.

You should check that you have reported parental leave for any employees who completed their parental leave within the reporting period. If you genuinely had no employees complete their parental leave in the reporting period please provide an explanation use the ‘Flexible work and leave data commentary’ field in the ‘Organisation’ dataset.

If you respond to this issue by providing the requested commentary, but do not make any other changes to your data, the issue will continue to appear in the Data Quality report on the reporting platform. The Commission will review your commentary when assessing the impact of this issue on your audit's compliance.

While you do not need to address this issue in 2025, please note that the ‘Data unavailable’ option for this field will be removed from 2027. The Commissioner expects that the newly required fields will be meaningfully and comprehensively populated in your 2027 audit and beyond

Refer to the audit handbook(opens in a new window) for detail on topics such as:

• the data specification for the 'weeks of paid parental leave’(opens in a new window) field.
• the data specification for the 'weeks of unpaid parental leave’(opens in a new window) field.

E_45 Your organisation did not include any inactive employees in its submission

The Gender Equality Act establishes seven workplace gender equality indicators. Addressing these indicators requires analysis of data for all employees employed by your organisation at any point within the reporting period. To facilitate this analysis, you need to accurately report all employees who were employed by your organisation at any point within the reporting period.

Each row in the employee dataset represents one employee at your organisation. The 'Active' data field indicates which employees were actively employed at the end of the audit reporting period.

The Commission checks that you reported any inactive employees in your Employee dataset. This helps ensure you have correctly reported all your employees from within the reporting period

Advice on rule E_45

You should check that you included all your employees in your employee dataset, and that you have applied the ‘Active’ field correctly. If you believe it's appropriate for your audit data to contain no inactive employees, please tell us using the ‘Workforce data commentary’ field in the ‘Organisation’ dataset.

If you respond to this issue by providing the requested commentary, but do not make any other changes to your data, the issue will continue to appear in the Data Quality report on the reporting platform. The Commission will review your commentary when assessing the impact of this issue on your audit's compliance.

Refer to the audit handbook(opens in a new window) for detail on topics such as:

• who counts and doesn't count as an employee(opens in a new window); and
• the data specification for the 'Active'(opens in a new window) field.

E_46 Your organisation did not report its head of organisation as a senior leader

Each row in the employee dataset represents one employee at your organisation. The 'Level' field should contain a number to indicate the level of each employee. The value 0 should be reserved for your organisation's CEO or equivalent head of organisation. The ‘Employee type’ field indicates whether employees are senior leaders or not.

Senior leaders include employees with the authority and responsibility for planning, directing and controlling the activities of an organisation, directly or indirectly. This should include the head of your organisation as well as other executives.

The Commission checks that your head of organisation, marked with Level 0 is marked as a senior leader. This helps ensure that the correct employees have been marked as senior leaders.

Advice on rule E_46

You are not required to address this issue in 2025.

The Commission may exclude some of your audit data from our publications if you do not take action.

While you do not need to address this issue in 2025, please note that the ‘Data unavailable’ option for this field will be removed from 2027. The Commissioner expects that the newly required fields will be meaningfully and comprehensively populated in your 2027 audit and beyond.

E_47 Your organisation reported base salary values well below the full-time minimum wage

Each row in the employee dataset represents one employee at your organisation. The 'Base salary' field should contain each employee's full-time equivalent annualised salary, as at the end of the audit reporting period.

An employee's base salary should not be lower than what someone would earn in a year working full-time on the national minimum wage. This equates to about $47,600 over the reporting period commencing 1 July 2024.

Additionally, an employee's total remuneration should not be lower than their base salary. The 'Total remuneration' field should contain each employee's full-time equivalent annualised salary, plus any other payments made to the employee during the audit reporting period.

Organisations don't need to provide base salary for inactive employees. There is a special code -999999 available for use for inactive employees only.

For this rule the Commission checks that you have reported a base salary value above $30,000 for each active employee.

Advice on rule E_47

You should check that you have reported annualised, full-time equivalent base salary figures for all active employees in your employee dataset. If you believe that you have active employees annualised, full-time equivalent base salaries below $30,000, please tell us using the ‘Remuneration data commentary’ field in the ‘Organisation’ dataset.

Common issues leading to this issue include:

• Failure to convert base salaries to full-time equivalent for part-time and casual employees
• Failure to annualise base salaries for employees who did not work for the entire reporting period
• Inclusion of non-employees who are not paid a standard salary in the Employee dataset. Eg. Board members or contractors.

If you respond to this issue by providing the requested commentary, but do not make any other changes to your data, the issue will continue to appear in the Data Quality report on the reporting platform. The Commission will review your commentary when assessing the impact of this issue on your audit's compliance.

Refer to the audit handbook (opens in a new window)for detail on topic such as:

• who counts and doesn't count as an employee(opens in a new window);
• the data specification for the 'Base salary'(opens in a new window) field; and
• the data specification for the 'Active'(opens in a new window) field.

E_48 Your organisation reported base salary values outside of the expected range for some active employees

Each row in the employee dataset represents one employee at your organisation. The 'Base salary' field should contain each employee's full-time equivalent annualised salary, as at the end of the audit reporting period.

An employee's base salary should not be lower than what someone would earn in a year working full-time on the national minimum wage. This equates to about $47,600 over the reporting period commencing 1 July 2024.

Additionally, an employee's total remuneration should not be lower than their base salary. The 'Total remuneration' field should contain each employee's full-time equivalent annualised salary, plus any other payments made to the employee during the audit reporting period.

Organisations don't need to provide base salary for inactive employees. There is a special code -999999 available for use for inactive employees only.

For this rule the Commission checks that you have reported a base salary value above $47,600 for each active employee, and that no more than 9 employees have salaries below $47,600.

Advice on rule E_48

The Commission may exclude some of your audit data from our publications if you do not take action. When your data is published to our Insights Portal(opens in a new window), measures that rely on this data may be unpopulated or have a message indicating that suitable data was not supplied.

You should check that you have reported annualised, full-time equivalent base salary figures for all active employees in your employee dataset. If you believe that you have active employees annualised, full-time equivalent base salaries below $47,600, please tell us using the ‘Remuneration data commentary’ field in the ‘Organisation’ dataset.

Common issues leading to this issue include:

• You may have trainees or apprentices who are genuinely paid below the minimum wage. If you have employees genuinely paid below the minimum wage please provide a suitable explanation in the 'Remuneration data commentary' field, identifying the employees by Unique ID.
• Failure to convert base salaries to full-time equivalent for part-time and casual employees
• Failure to annualise base salaries for employees who did not work for the entire reporting period
• Inclusion of non-employees who are not paid a standard salary in the Employee dataset. Eg. Board members or contractors.

Refer to the audit handbook (opens in a new window)for detail on topic such as:

• who counts and doesn't count as an employee(opens in a new window);
• the data specification for the 'Base salary'(opens in a new window) field; and

the data specification for the 'Active'(opens in a new window) field.

E_49 Your organisation reported base salary values outside of the expected range for a significant number of active employees

Each row in the employee dataset represents one employee at your organisation. The 'Base salary' field should contain each employee's full-time equivalent annualised salary, as at the end of the audit reporting period.

An employee's base salary should not be lower than what someone would earn in a year working full-time on the national minimum wage. This equates to about $47,600 over the reporting period commencing 1 July 2024.

Additionally, an employee's total remuneration should not be lower than their base salary. The 'Total remuneration' field should contain each employee's full-time equivalent annualised salary, plus any other payments made to the employee during the audit reporting period.

Organisations don't need to provide base salary for inactive employees. There is a special code -999999 available for use for inactive employees only.

For this rule the Commission checks that you have reported a base salary value above $47,600 for each active employee, and that less than 10 employees have salaries below $47,600.

Advice on rule E_49

You should check that you have reported annualised, full-time equivalent base salary figures for all active employees in your employee dataset. If you believe that you have active employees annualised, full-time equivalent base salaries below $47,600, please tell us using the ‘Remuneration data commentary’ field in the ‘Organisation’ dataset.

Common issues leading to this issue include:

• You may have trainees or apprentices who are genuinely paid below the minimum wage. If you have employees genuinely paid below the minimum wage please provide a suitable explanation in the 'Remuneration data commentary' field, identifying the employees by Unique ID.
• Failure to convert base salaries to full-time equivalent for part-time and casual employees
• Failure to annualise base salaries for employees who did not work for the entire reporting period
• Inclusion of non-employees who are not paid a standard salary in the Employee dataset. Eg. Board members or contractors.

If you respond to this issue by providing the requested commentary, but do not make any other changes to your data, the issue will continue to appear in the Data Quality report on the reporting platform. The Commission will review your commentary when assessing the impact of this issue on your audit's compliance.

Refer to the audit handbook (opens in a new window)for detail on topic such as:

• who counts and doesn't count as an employee(opens in a new window);
• the data specification for the 'Base salary'(opens in a new window) field; and

the data specification for the 'Active'(opens in a new window) field.

E_50 Your organisation reported exceptionally high base salary values for some active employees

Each row in the employee dataset represents one employee at your organisation. The 'Base salary' field should contain each employee's full-time equivalent annualised salary, as at the end of the audit reporting period.

An employee's base salary should only include payments that are part of an employee's regular salary and not include additional payments such as superannuation.

Additionally, an employee's total remuneration should not be lower than their base salary. The 'Total remuneration' field should contain each employee's full-time equivalent annualised salary, plus any other payments made to the employee during the audit reporting period.

Organisations don't need to provide base salary for inactive employees. There is a special code -999999 available for use for inactive employees only.

For this rule the Commission checks that you have not reported a base salary value above $1,000,000 for each active employee. This helps ensure you have reported legitimate base salaries for all active employees.

Advice on rule E_50

You should check that you have included the correct payments in reported base salaries for all active employees in your employee dataset. For examples of what payments should and should not be included in base salary please review the audit handbook(opens in a new window).

If you believe that you have active employees annualised, full-time equivalent base salaries above $1,000,000 please tell us using the ‘Remuneration data commentary’ field in the ‘Organisation’ dataset.

Common issues leading to this issue include:

• Including the incorrect payments from executive packages
• Errors in calculating annualised, full-time equivalent base salary. Eg. Misplaced decimal places.
• Data entry errors
• Inclusion of non-employees who are not paid a standard salary in the Employee dataset. Eg. Contractors with exceptionally high hourly/day rates.

If you revise your submission, the reporting platform's Data Quality Review report can help you confirm you've addressed this issue. To view it, log into the reporting platform(opens in a new window) and navigate to Reports > Review. Please note that if you address this issue by providing commentary it will continue to appear in the Data Quality Review report. If you have provided sufficient information you can disregard this issue in the report and it will be checked by the Commission during compliance checking. Please note that if you address this issue by providing commentary it will continue to appear in the Data Quality Review report. If you have provided sufficient information you can disregard this issue in the report and it will be checked by the Commission during compliance checking.

If you respond to this issue by providing the requested commentary, but do not make any other changes to your data, the issue will continue to appear in the Data Quality report on the reporting platform. The Commission will review your commentary when assessing the impact of this issue on your audit's compliance.

Refer to the audit handbook (opens in a new window)for detail on topic such as:

• who counts and doesn't count as an employee(opens in a new window);
• the data specification for the 'Base salary'(opens in a new window) field; and
• the data specification for the 'Active'(opens in a new window) field.

E_51 Your organisation classified active employees under occupation code 099888 (Response inadequately described)

The Gender Equality Act establishes seven workplace gender equality indicators. One of these indicators requires analysis of gendered segregation within the workforce. To facilitate this analysis, you need to classify your active employees by their occupation.

Each row in the employee dataset represents one employee at your organisation. The 'Occupation code' field should contain a code to indicate the occupation of each active employee.

The special occupation code ‘099888’ is reserved for inactive employees and should not be applied to active employees, without a suitable explanation.

The Commission checks that you have assigned a meaningful occupation code to each active employee. This helps ensure you have adequate data to support a gendered segregation analysis.

Advice on rule E_51

Excluding active employees from your occupational segregation analysis may distort the results.

If you've used code ‘099888’ for a significant number of active employees, the Commission will likely ask you to resubmit. You are expected to make an effort to classify all active employees by occupation.

You should try to assign a meaningful occupation code to each active employee. Industry-specific guidance is available to help you assign occupation codes to your employees consistently and efficiently:

• Local government: ANZSCO guidance for local councils(opens in a new window)
• Health sector: Health sector data collection(opens in a new window) (PCR and ANZSCO guide)
• All other organisations: ANZSCO coding guides(opens in a new window)

If you're unable to classify all of your active employees using the coding guidance for your industry, you can also review a list of all accepted codes in the workforce reporting template. For employees who are difficult to classify into a specific occupation, the Commission allows reporting of less detailed codes, however the use of these codes should be restricted to difficult cases. The Commission may require you to resubmit if you overuse of lower detail occupation coding. At minimum, each employee should be classified into one of the eight major occupation groups (noting 'nfd' means 'not further defined'):

• 100000 Managers nfd
• 200000 Professionals nfd
• 300000 Technicians and Trades Workers nfd
• 400000 Community and Personal Service Workers nfd
• 500000 Clerical and Administrative Workers nfd
• 600000 Sales Workers nfd
• 700000 Machinery Operators and Drivers nfd
• 800000 Labourers nfd

If you believe it's appropriate for some of your active employees to be unclassified, please tell us using the ‘Jobs and employment data commentary’ field in the ‘Organisation’ dataset.

Refer to the audit handbook(opens in a new window) for detail on topics such as:

• who counts and doesn't count as an active employee(opens in a new window); and
• the data specification for the 'Occupation code'(opens in a new window) field.

E_53 Your organisation reported total remuneration values that appear excessively high

The Gender Equality Act establishes seven workplace gender equality indicators. One of these indicators requires a comprehensive analysis of remuneration to identify potential pay inequality. To facilitate an accurate analysis, you must report precise base salary and total remuneration figures for your employees.

The Commission checks instances where an employee's total remuneration is reported as greater than 150% of their base salary and raises this issue if any results appear abnormal. This helps ensure data integrity, as excessively high total remuneration values compared to base salaries may indicate a calculation error.

Advice on rule E_53

You should check your employee dataset to confirm that the total remuneration and base salary figures are accurate for the flagged employees. Specifically, check the logic used to calculate annualised, full-time equivalent (FTE) figures.

Check for "scaling up" errors where pay elements that are not paid pro-rata (such as one-off bonuses or fixed allowance) have been incorrectly calculated. This can artificially inflate total remuneration values for employees that have a less than 1.0 FTE value. If the reported figures are correct and reasonable – for example, for executives or roles with significant regular overtime or other allowances – please provide an explanation using the ‘Remuneration data commentary’(opens in a new window) field in the ‘Organisation’ dataset(opens in a new window). Refer to the audit handbook(opens in a new window) for detail on topics such as:

• the data specification for the 'Base salary'(opens in a new window) field; and
• the data specification for the 'Total remuneration'(opens in a new window) field.

If you respond to this issue by providing the requested commentary, but do not make any other changes to your data, the issue will continue to appear in the Data Quality report on the reporting platform. The Commission will review your commentary when assessing the impact of this issue on your audit's compliance.

E_DG_07 Your organisation's employee dataset does not include full-time equivalent (FTE) data

Each row in the employee dataset represents one employee at your organisation. The 'Full-time equivalent (FTE)' data field is required for all active employees in 2025.

The Commission checks whether your organisation made correct use of this field.

Advice on this rule

Refer to the audit handbook (opens in a new window)for detail on topic such as:

• the data specification for the ‘Full-time equivalent (FTE)(opens in a new window)’ field.

E_DG_08 Your organisation's employee dataset does not include employee type data

Each row in the employee dataset represents one employee at your organisation. The 'Employee type' data field is required from 2025.

The Commission checks whether your organisation made use of this field.

Advice on rule E_DG_08

While you do not need to address this issue in 2025, please note that the ‘Data unavailable’ option for this field will be removed from 2027. The Commissioner expects that the newly required fields will be meaningfully and comprehensively populated in your 2027 audit and beyond

Refer to the audit handbook (opens in a new window)for detail on topic such as:

• the data specification for the ‘Employee type’(opens in a new window) field

E_DG_09 Your organisation's employee dataset does not include recruitments data

Each row in the employee dataset represents one employee at your organisation. The 'Recruitments' data field is required from 2025.

The Commission checks whether your organisation made use of this field.

Advice on rule E_DG_09

While you do not need to address this issue in 2025, please note that the ‘Data unavailable’ option for this field will be removed from 2027. The Commissioner expects that the newly required fields will be meaningfully and comprehensively populated in your 2027 audit and beyond

Refer to the audit handbook (opens in a new window)for detail on topic such as:

• the data specification for the ‘Recruited’(opens in a new window) field

E_DG_10 Your organisation's employee dataset does not include exits data

Each row in the employee dataset represents one employee at your organisation. The 'Exited' data field is required from 2025.

The Commission checks whether your organisation made use of this field.

Advice on rule E_DG_10

While you do not need to address this issue in 2025, please note that the ‘Data unavailable’ option for this field will be removed from 2027. The Commissioner expects that the newly required fields will be meaningfully and comprehensively populated in your 2027 audit and beyond

Refer to the audit handbook (opens in a new window)for detail on topic such as:

• the data specification for the ‘Exited’(opens in a new window) field

E_DG_11 Your organisation's employee dataset does not include home postcode data

The Gender Equality Act establishes seven workplace gender equality indicators, which include assessing the composition of your workforce. Collecting demographic data, including geographic location, allows for a more comprehensive understanding of your workforce profile and potential intersecting inequalities. To facilitate this analysis, organisations can collect and report on the home postcodes of their employees.

The Commission checks if you have provided home postcode data for at least some employees in your dataset. This helps ensure that the dataset can adequately support regional and geographic analysis of the Victorian public sector workforce.

Advice on rule E_DG_11

You should check your employee dataset to ensure that the 'Home postcode' column has been populated where this information is available. If your organisation does not collect this data or if there is a specific reason it is entirely missing, please provide context using the 'Workforce data commentary'(opens in a new window) field in the 'Organisation' dataset(opens in a new window).

Refer to the audit handbook(opens in a new window) for detail on topics such as:

• the data specification for the 'Home postcode'(opens in a new window) field; and
• providing context in the 'Organisation' dataset(opens in a new window).

E_DG_12 Your organisation's employee dataset does not include weekly pay data

The Gender Equality Act establishes seven workplace gender equality indicators. One of these indicators requires an analysis of remuneration across your workforce. To facilitate this analysis and understand earnings across different working arrangements, you can provide weekly pay data for your employees.

The Commission checks that you have provided weekly pay data for at least some employees in your dataset. This helps ensure that the dataset contains foundational remuneration information necessary to support a pay equity assessment.

Advice on rule E_DG_12

You should check your employee dataset to ensure that the 'Weekly pay' column has been populated where this information is available. If your organisation does not collect this data or if there is a systemic reason it is entirely missing from your extract, please provide context using the 'Remuneration data commentary'(opens in a new window) field in the 'Organisation' dataset(opens in a new window).

Refer to the audit handbook(opens in a new window) for detail on topics such as:

• the data specification for the 'Weekly pay'(opens in a new window) field; and

how to provide contextual information in the 'Organisation' dataset(opens in a new window).

E_DG_13 Your organisation's employee dataset does not include promotions data

Each row in the employee dataset represents one employee at your organisation. The 'Promoted' data field is required from 2025.

The Commission checks whether your organisation made use of this field.

Advice on rule E_DG_13

While you do not need to address this issue in 2025, please note that the ‘Data unavailable’ option for this field will be removed from 2027. The Commissioner expects that the newly required fields will be meaningfully and comprehensively populated in your 2027 audit and beyond

Refer to the audit handbook (opens in a new window)for detail on topic such as:

• the data specification for the ‘Promoted’(opens in a new window) field

E_DG_14 Your organisation's employee dataset does not include career development training data

Each row in the employee dataset represents one employee at your organisation. The 'Career development training' data field is required from 2025.

The Commission checks whether your organisation made use of this field.

Advice on rule E_DG_14

While you do not need to address this issue in 2025, please note that the ‘Data unavailable’ option for this field will be removed from 2027. The Commissioner expects that the newly required fields will be meaningfully and comprehensively populated in your 2027 audit and beyond

Refer to the audit handbook (opens in a new window)for detail on topic such as:

• the data specification for the ‘Career development training’(opens in a new window) field

E_DG_15 Your organisation's employee dataset does not include higher duties data

Each row in the employee dataset represents one employee at your organisation. The 'Higher duties' data field is required from 2025.

The Commission checks whether your organisation made use of this field.

Advice on rule E_DG_15

While you do not need to address this issue in 2025, please note that the ‘Data unavailable’ option for this field will be removed from 2027. The Commissioner expects that the newly required fields will be meaningfully and comprehensively populated in your 2027 audit and beyond

Refer to the audit handbook (opens in a new window)for detail on topic such as:

• the data specification for the ‘Higher duties’(opens in a new window) field

E_DG_16 Your organisation's employee dataset does not include internal secondment data

Each row in the employee dataset represents one employee at your organisation. The 'Internal secondment' data field is required from 2025.

The Commission checks whether your organisation made use of this field.

Advice on rule E_DG_16

While you do not need to address this issue in 2025, please note that the ‘Data unavailable’ option for this field will be removed from 2027. The Commissioner expects that the newly required fields will be meaningfully and comprehensively populated in your 2027 audit and beyond

Refer to the audit handbook (opens in a new window)for detail on topic such as:

• the data specification for the ‘Internal secondment’(opens in a new window) field

E_DG_17 Your organisation's employee dataset does not include formal flexible work arrangement data

Each row in the employee dataset represents one employee at your organisation. The 'Formal flexible work arrangement' data field is required from 2025.

The Commission checks whether your organisation made use of this field.

Advice on rule E_DG_17

While you do not need to address this issue in 2025, please note that the ‘Data unavailable’ option for this field will be removed from 2027. The Commissioner expects that the newly required fields will be meaningfully and comprehensively populated in your 2027 audit and beyond

Refer to the audit handbook (opens in a new window)for detail on topic such as:

• the data specification for the ‘Formal flexible work arrangement’(opens in a new window) field

E_DG_18 Your organisation's employee dataset does not include formal flexible work type data

Each row in the employee dataset represents one employee at your organisation. The 'Formal flexible work type' data field is required from 2025.

The Commission checks whether your organisation made use of this field.

Advice on rule E_DG_18

While you do not need to address this issue in 2025, please note that the ‘Data unavailable’ option for this field will be removed from 2027. The Commissioner expects that the newly required fields will be meaningfully and comprehensively populated in your 2027 audit and beyond

Refer to the audit handbook (opens in a new window)for detail on topic such as:

• the data specification for the ‘Formal flexible work type’(opens in a new window) field

E_DG_19 Your organisation's employee dataset does not include paid parental leave data

Each row in the employee dataset represents one employee at your organisation. The 'Weeks of paid parental leave' data field is required from 2025.

The Commission checks whether your organisation made use of this field.

Advice on rule E_DG_19

While you do not need to address this issue in 2025, please note that the ‘Data unavailable’ option for this field will be removed from 2027. The Commissioner expects that the newly required fields will be meaningfully and comprehensively populated in your 2027 audit and beyond

Refer to the audit handbook (opens in a new window)for detail on topic such as:

• the data specification for the ‘Weeks of paid parental leave’(opens in a new window) field

E_DG_20 Your organisation's employee dataset does not include unpaid parental leave data

Each row in the employee dataset represents one employee at your organisation. The 'Weeks of unpaid parental leave' data field is required from 2025.

The Commission checks whether your organisation made use of this field.

Advice on rule E_DG_20

While you do not need to address this issue in 2025, please note that the ‘Data unavailable’ option for this field will be removed from 2027. The Commissioner expects that the newly required fields will be meaningfully and comprehensively populated in your 2027 audit and beyond

Refer to the audit handbook (opens in a new window)for detail on topic such as:

• the data specification for the ‘Weeks of unpaid parental leave’(opens in a new window) field

E_DG_21 Your organisation's employee dataset does not include parental leave exit type data

Each row in the employee dataset represents one employee at your organisation. The 'Parental leave exit type' data field is required from 2025.

The Commission checks whether your organisation made use of this field.

Advice on rule E_DG_21

While you do not need to address this issue in 2025, please note that the ‘Data unavailable’ option for this field will be removed from 2027. The Commissioner expects that the newly required fields will be meaningfully and comprehensively populated in your 2027 audit and beyond

Refer to the audit handbook (opens in a new window)for detail on topic such as:

• the data specification for the ‘Parental leave exit type(opens in a new window)’ field

E_DG_22 Your organisation's employee dataset does not include carers leave data

Each row in the employee dataset represents one employee at your organisation. The 'Accessed carers leave' data field is required from 2025.

The Commission checks whether your organisation made use of this field.

Advice on rule E_DG_22

While you do not need to address this issue in 2025, please note that the ‘Data unavailable’ option for this field will be removed from 2027. The Commissioner expects that the newly required fields will be meaningfully and comprehensively populated in your 2027 audit and beyond

Refer to the audit handbook (opens in a new window)for detail on topic such as:

• the data specification for the ‘Accessed carers leave'(opens in a new window) field