With the WGEA deadline a fortnight away, new data reveals a widening trust and promotion gap – and a sector still far behind its public counterpart
Australia's largest private sector employers are facing a crisis of confidence just weeks before they must commit to mandatory gender equality targets – with women's trust in their employers to close the gender pay gap falling from 51% to 35% in a single year, according to new research from HiBob.
The findings land ahead of the 31 May 2026 deadline, by which roughly 2,000 designated relevant employers – those directly employing 500 or more people – must each select three gender equality targets from a menu of 19 options under the amended Workplace Gender Equality Act 2012. At the end of a three-year cycle, those employers must meet or demonstrate meaningful improvement against each target.
HiBob's Women in the Workplace report shows the erosion of confidence is being driven by measurable stagnation in career advancement. Just 14% of women received a promotion in 2025, compared to 27% of men – and nearly a third of women (32%) received no promotion, pay rise or benefits increase of any kind last year, up 6% from the prior year.
The picture stands in stark contrast to the Commonwealth public sector, where WGEA's newly released 2024 aggregate data shows 64% of promotions from non-manager to manager roles went to women, and the sector has achieved gender balance across all remuneration quartiles. The public sector's average total remuneration gender pay gap sits at 7.4%, with 50% of employers recording a gap below 6.0% – compared to just 11.2% in the private sector.
A system under pressure
Anna Volkova, head of people and culture at HiBob APJ, said the legislation represents a genuine catalyst for change, but warns that reactive approaches risk compounding the problem.
"If we look at the root causes, the confidence that their companies are doing something to bridge that gap has dropped from 51 to 35%, which is a huge drop in just one year," she said. "Businesses are under a lot of pressure economically – they need to do more with less. And so I think that that is potentially going to cause businesses to be reactive."
Her concern is that employers scrambling to satisfy legislative requirements may default to short-term fixes – such as hiring women into leadership positions – without addressing the structural issues that cause them to leave. "You can put in these short-term measures, but ultimately if you don't have the fundamentals in place in terms of development, developing leadership capability – then you're going to be recruiting a bucket with holes. Those women will ultimately not stay in the business."
Catherine Hunter, CEO of Diversity Council Australia (DCA), agrees that the design of the targets matters as much as the commitment itself.
"The introduction of mandatory gender equity targets is an important shift from reporting on outcomes to actively committing to change, and we're seeing growing evidence that well-designed targets are an effective driver of sustained progress on gender equity," Hunter said.
"Targets give organisations a clear focus, help prioritise resources, and make it easier to track whether their strategies are working."
She noted that public reporting adds another layer of accountability: That kind of visibility can be a powerful lever for change."
Beyond compliance: what lasting change looks like
Both experts are clear that hitting a target is not the same as achieving equity.
"Reporting and targets are a strong step forward, but they're just the beginning," Hunter said. "Real progress comes from addressing the structural and cultural barriers that sit behind the numbers. That means building gender equity into everyday business decisions, holding leaders accountable, and making sure policies around things like pay, progression and performance actually deliver fair outcomes in practice."
She pointed to flexibility as a critical lever – citing evidence that the normalisation of flexible work practices is the factor most correlated with higher ratios of women in leadership. She also called for an intersectional lens.
"Women are not a homogenous group. Women who face additional, overlapping forms of discrimination, like culturally and racially marginalised women and women with disability, experience gender inequality differently, and our responses need to reflect that," explained Hunter.
Volkova's advice to senior HR leaders ahead of the deadline is similarly direct: start with data.
"Audit. Know your data. It's really, really difficult for businesses to have a plan for what they don't know," she said. "Don't wait for deadlines, don't wait for legislation to be the reason that you move. Being proactive about it can create greater trust with your workforce – for both men and women."
She also called on organisations to examine the full employee lifecycle, citing the return from parental leave as a defining moment that is frequently mishandled.
The WGEA data offers one point of encouragement here: men now account for 19% of all primary carer's parental leave taken in the Commonwealth public sector – matching the private sector after years of lagging behind, suggesting cultural shifts around parental leave are possible across both sectors.
The long view
Volkova pointed to the UK as a sobering benchmark. Since gender pay reporting was introduced there in 2017, the pay gap has closed by just 1.6% over eight years.
Hunter is similarly measured in her optimism: "Lasting change comes from sustained, organisation-wide action to build safe, respectful and inclusive workplace environments where everyone can thrive."
For Australian employers, the May deadline is only the beginning. The real test will be whether the targets they select translate into structural change – or simply satisfy a checkbox. Staying informed on HR legislation and compliance developments will be essential as the three-year cycle unfolds.
