Audit handbook: The employee dataset

Unique reference is an identifier that your organisation should assign to each employee in the Employee dataset. The reference must be unique (that is, there should be no duplicates).

Do not use a reference that could be used to reidentify an employee. This includes payroll numbers, personnel numbers, usernames or other identifiers for the employee that are known to your internal systems.

Instead, the Commission recommends

• generating and assigning a unique reference for each employee
• maintaining (in your own records) a mapping between the actual employee records, and the unique reference you have used for your audit.

Maintaining this mapping with the other materials and records you use to prepare your audit will help you to:

• locate the original data for each record in the employee dataset if the Commission has a question about your data, or you need to make a correction.

If you maintain this mapping, please ensure that you do not submit it to the Commission when uploading and submitting your audit.

For further information about risk of re-identification, please refer to An introduction to de-identification – Office of the Victorian Information Commissioner(opens in a new window).

• Can include numbers, letters and punctuation marks
• Each value must be unique
• Do not include spaces

Gender is part of how someone understands who they are and how they interact with other people. Many people identify their gender as being 'woman' or 'man'. Some people understand their gender as a combination of these or neither. Gender can be expressed in different ways, such as through behaviour or physical appearance. A person’s gender does not necessarily mean they have particular sex characteristics or a particular sexuality, or vice versa.

The Commissioner recommends allowing an option for self-described gender with a free text option, in addition to 'woman' and 'man' when collecting gender data. For those people who identify with a self-described gender, record their gender in relevant systems using the term(s) provided by the employee. An individual with a self-described gender may identify as non-binary, trans, gender diverse, agender, genderqueer, genderfluid or using any other term.

For the purposes of the audit, the Commissioner will collect data within 3 gender groups – women, men and self-described gender.

Use the value 'Prefer not to say' for people who chose not to disclose their identity to your organisation.

• Woman (W)
• Man (M)
• Self-described (S)
• Prefer not to say (P)

Use this field to indicate whether each person is Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander.

Use the value 'Prefer not to say' for people who chose not to disclose their identity to your organisation.

Use the value 'Data unavailable' if your organisation can't provide this information at this time.

• Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander (B)
• Non Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander (A)
• Prefer not to say (P)
• Data unavailable (DU)

Use this field to indicate the person's age range, as at the last day of the audit reporting period.

Use the value 'Data unavailable' if your organisation cannot provide this information at this time.

• 15–24 years (A)
• 25–34 years (B)
• 35–44 years (C)
• 45–54 years (D)
• 55–64 years (E)
• 65+ years (F)
• Data unavailable (DU)

Cultural identity is the group to which a person feels they belong. This might be based on ancestry, tradition, language, geography and/or individual experience.

Where possible, collect multiple responses for this data item. This ensures respondents can list all groups with which they identify. If an employee selects multiple cultural identities, format the selections as a list delimited with vertical bars like this: A|B|C

Use the value 'Prefer not to say' for people who chose not to disclose their identity to your organisation.

Use the value 'Data unavailable' if your organisation cannot provide this information at this time.

• Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander (A)
• African (including Central, West, Southern and East African) (B)
• Australian (C)
• Central and/or South American (D)
• Central Asian (E)
• East and/or South-East Asian (F)
• English, Irish, Scottish or Welsh (G)
• European (including Western, Eastern and South-Eastern European, and Scandinavian) (H)
• Maori (I)
• Middle Eastern and/or North African (J)
• New Zealander (K)
• North American (L)
• Pacific Islander (M)
• South Asian (N)
• Other (O)
• Prefer not to say (P)
• Data unavailable (DU)

Use this field to indicate each person's disability status.

Use the value 'Prefer not to say' for people who chose not to disclose their disability status to your organisation.

Use the value 'Data unavailable' if your organisation can't provide this information at this time.

• No disability (A)
• With disability (B)
• Prefer not to say (C)
• Data unavailable (DU)

Use this field to indicate each person's religion.

Use the value 'Prefer not to say' for people who chose not to disclose their religion to your organisation.

Use the value 'Data unavailable' if your organisation can't provide this information at this time.

• Buddhism (A)
• Christianity (B)
• Hinduism (C)
• Islam (D)
• Judaism (E)
• No religion (F)
• Sikhism (G)
• Other (H)
• Prefer not to say (I)
• Data unavailable (DU)

Use this field to indicate each person's sexual orientation.

Use the value 'Prefer not to say' for people who chose not to disclose their sexual orientation to your organisation.

Use the value 'Data unavailable' if your organisation can't provide this information at this time.

• Asexual (A)
• Bisexual (B)
• Don't know (C)
• Gay or lesbian (D)
• Pansexual (E)
• Self-described (F)
• Straight (heterosexual) (G)
• Prefer not to say (H)
• Data unavailable (DU)

Use this field to indicate the nature of each person's employment. For active employees, report employment basis as at the end of the audit reporting period. For inactive employees, report employment basis as at the end of their employment.

Classify employees based on your organisation's definition of full-time hours. This might be defined on:

• a daily basis (typically 7.5, 7.6 or 8 hours per day),
• a weekly basis (typically 37.5, 38 or 40 hours per week), or
• a fortnightly basis (typically 75, 76 or 80 hours per fortnight).

Full-time employees are engaged to work your organisation's definition of full-time hours. Their hours are guaranteed and reasonably predictable.

Part-time employees are engaged to work less than your organisation's definition of full-time hours. They typically work regular hours each day, week or fortnight and have the same benefits as full-time employees on a pro-rata basis.

Ongoing/permanent employees are engaged to work for an indefinite period of time until the employer or employee ends the employment relationship.

Fixed-term employees are engaged to work regular hours for a specific period of time or task, or until the employer or employee ends the employment relationship. This typically includes apprentices and trainees.

Casual employees are engaged to work without a firm advance commitment to ongoing work and guaranteed hours. Casual work arrangements can typically be terminated by the employee or employer without notice. Casual employees usually do not qualify for annual leave entitlements and may be paid an additional loading or a higher rate of pay.

• Full-time ongoing/permanent (FTO)
• Full-time fixed term (FTT)
• Part-time ongoing/permanent (PTO)
• Part-time fixed term (PTT)
• Casual (C)

Use this field to capture the proportion of full-time hours that each employee is normally contracted to work, excluding overtime.

For active employees, report FTE as at the end of the audit reporting period. For inactive employees, report FTE as at the end of their employment.

Classify employees based on your organisation's definition of full-time hours. This might be defined on:

• a daily basis (typically 7.5, 7.6 or 8 hours per day)
• a weekly basis (typically 37.5, 38 or 40 hours per week)
• a fortnightly basis (typically 75, 76 or 80 hours per fortnight).

Report FTE as a number with up to 2 decimal places, with full-time hours equal to 1.00 FTE.

For example:

• Someone who works 6 hours per day at an organisation with 8-hour workdays should be reported as 0.75 FTE.
• Someone who works full-time hours on 3 of 5 days per week should be reported as 0.6 FTE.
• Someone who works full-time hours on 9 of 10 days per fortnight should be reported as 0.9 FTE.

FTE must be reported for casual employees. You can estimate FTE for casual employees using one of the following methods.

For casuals paid an hourly rate:

• Calculate the FTE by comparing the casual employee’s average number of hours worked on their work days, excluding any hours paid as overtime, to your organisation’s standard workday.
  • average hours per day = (total hours worked in reporting period) divided by (total days worked in reporting period)
  • estimated FTE = (average hours per day) divided by (hours in standard workday)

For casuals paid a daily rate:

• Calculate the FTE by comparing the casual employee’s average number of days worked per week they worked in, excluding any time paid as overtime, to your organisation’s standard work week.
  • average days per week = (total days worked in reporting period) divided by (total weeks worked in reporting period)
  • estimated FTE = (average days per week worked) divided by (days in standard work week)

You do not need to account for purchased leave arrangements when reporting FTE.

• Must be a number greater than 0 and less than or equal to 1
• Can include up to 2 decimal places
• Blanks allowed

Level indicates each employees’ level within your organisation as at the end of the reporting period.

The values you assign in this field will allow you to look at each level of your organisation individually. For each level, you will be able to view measures such as gender composition, pay equity and flexible work utilisation.

Assign level consistent with previous reports so you can examine changes in the measures over time.

Use level 0 to report the head of your organisation (your CEO or equivalent), and no other employees. Report exactly one employee at level 0 unless your organisation has multiple heads of organisation.

If you have more than one head of organisation, please provide an explanation in your Workforce data commentary in the Organisation dataset(opens in a new window). Failure to provide a valid explanation may result in your audit requiring resubmission.

From level 0, the Commissioner encourages organisations to use whatever classification framework will produce the most meaningful gendered analysis.

For some organisations, the best approach might be to assign levels hierarchically. People who report directly to the CEO would be classified as level -1. People who report to someone at level -1 would be classified as level -2, and so on until all employees have been classified.

For other organisations, it might be more useful to assign levels based on grades in existing Enterprise Bargaining Agreements. For example, a VPS organisation might assign levels based on each employee's VPS grade.

If neither of these approaches is likely to produce meaningful analysis for your organisation, the Commissioner recommends that your organisation develop its own classification framework.

You should consider factors such as seniority, level of responsibility, reporting lines, and the nature of each employee's work.

For example, an organisation might classify its senior leadership team as level -1, regardless of reporting line.

It also might classify the CEO's executive assistant at the same level as other employees that perform similar roles, even though the executive assistant reports directly to the CEO.

• 0
• -1
• -2
• -3
• -4
• -5
• -6
• -7
• -8
• -9
• -10
• -11
• -12
• -13
• -14
• -15

Use this field to indicate each person's level of responsibility in the organisation, as at the end of the audit reporting period. For inactive employees, indicate their level of responsibility as at the end of their employment.

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

Use this field to indicate your organisation’s senior leaders. Use the value for ‘Not a senior leader’ for all other employees.

If an employee holds more than one role, use the category that best reflects their substantive or main role.

If an employee is acting on a higher duties assignment for a period of more than 2 weeks at the end of the reporting period, use the category that best reflects their higher classification. If the assignment is shorter than 2 weeks, use the category that best reflects their substantive classification.

If your organisation is unable to identify its senior leaders, use the value ‘Data unavailable’ (DU) (please note that the DU option will not be available for this field in the 2027 template).

• Senior leader (A)
• Not a senior leader (B)
• Data unavailable (DU)

Your employee dataset should include every person who met the Act’s definition of an employee at some point during the audit reporting period, even if they are no longer employed by your organisation.

Use this field to indicate whether each person was actively employed at the end of the audit reporting period. Active employees are those who were paid for work or were on paid leave in the last full pay period of the audit reporting period.

If a casual employee worked in the last pay period of the audit reporting period, record them as an active employee. If a casual employee did not work in the last pay period of the audit reporting period, record them as inactive.

• Yes (Y)
• No (N)

Use this field to indicate whether each person was recruited during the reporting period.

Record an employee as recruited if they commenced employment with your organisation at some point during the audit reporting period.

Use ‘Movement due to machinery of government’ for an employee transferred into your organisation during the reporting period due to a machinery of government change (that is, due to the reallocation of functions and responsibilities between departments and ministers).

an employee transferred into your organisation during the reporting period where your organisation has formed following an amalgamation of ceased organisations and the employee originated from one of the ceased organisations.

an employee transferred into your organisation during the reporting period from an organisation that has merged with your organisation.

If your organisation is unable to identify which employees were recruited during the reporting period, use the value ‘Data unavailable’ (DU)

Note: as described in Summary of changes between 2023 and 2025(opens in a new window), the ‘Data unavailable’ option for this field will be removed for the 2027 audit.

• Yes (Y)
• No (N)
• Movement due to machinery of government (M)
• Data unavailable (DU)

Use this field to indicate whether each person exited your organisation during the reporting period.

Record an employee as having exited if they ceased employment with your organisation at some point during the audit reporting period. This includes exits due to resignation, dismissal, redundancy or retirement.

If an employee was transferred out of your organisation due to a machinery of government change, use the value ‘Movement due to machinery of government’. The term ‘machinery of government’ refers specifically to the reallocation of functions and responsibilities between departments and ministers. This value should only be used by VPS departments.

If your organisation is unable to identify which employees exited during the reporting period, use the value ‘Data unavailable’ (DU)

Note: as described in Summary of changes between 2023 and 2025(opens in a new window), the ‘Data unavailable’ option for this field will be removed for the 2027 audit.

• Yes (Y)
• No (N)
• Movement due to machinery of government (M)
• Data unavailable (DU)

The Commissioner recognises that some organisations include multiple distinct workforces.

Examining these workforces individually can yield meaningful insights about the nature of workplace gender inequality that might not be evident at the organisation level. If your organisation includes several distinct workforces, you can use this field to sort your employees into groups of your choosing.

For example, an organisation that employs people under 2 Enterprise Bargaining Agreements (EBA) could define a workforce group for each EBA. A different organisation might prefer to define workforce groups for its administrative staff, as distinct from operations personnel.

The Commissioner encourages organisations to define workforce groups that facilitate meaningful analysis, and that do not duplicate information captured in other fields.

When applying workgroups to your employees, take care to avoid over stratifying your workforce. This this may make it difficult to make meaningful inferences using the groups. All groups should contain at least 10 active employees to be used in analysis.

Leave this field blank if you do not wish to segment your workforce for reporting and analysis.

• Free text – can use letters, numbers and punctuation
• No longer than 50 characters
• Each group must include at least 10 people
• Group names must not include any sensitive or private information
• Blanks allowed

Use this field to indicate each person's occupation within your organisation.

The values you assign in this field will allow you to measure the gender composition of different occupation groups in your organisation.

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 active employees using the coding guidance for your industry, you can also review a list of all accepted codes in the workforce reporting template. Abbreviations used in the accepted value list include:

• nec: not elsewhere classified
• nfd: not further defined.

What you are required to do

You must classify your active employees based on the role they held at the end of the audit reporting period.

You must have a valid ANZSCO code for every active employee.

You must use meaningful classifications codes to enable your data to be represented as indicators. This includes for gendered segregation in the workplace and equal remuneration for work of equal or comparable value.

What you are encouraged to do

You should classify your employees at the 6-digit level.

For example, if your organisation has a Finance Manager, you should assign them the code 132211 (Finance Manager), rather than a less-specific manager code such as 100000 (Managers, nfd). In 2023, almost 90% of employees were classified at the 6-digit level.

You do not need to classify inactive employees, but if you do, classify them based on the role they held at the end of their employment. Otherwise use the code 099888 (Response inadequately described)

What you must not do

You should not use the code 099888 (Response inadequately described) to describe the occupation of active employees – except in limited instances where you cannot identify a meaningful occupation code for an employee. However, you can use this code for inactive employees.

The accepted values for this field are drawn from the Australian and New Zealand Standard Classification of Occupations (ANZSCO), First Edition Revision 1.3. This is the same standard used by the Australian Bureau of Statistics to classify census and workforce survey respondents.

The standard will be changing from 2027 – an important note to help you prepare

From 2027, the Commissioner is planning for the occupational classification scheme used for your audit to change from ANZSCO to OSCA. This will have an impact on your reporting.

The Occupation Standard Classification for Australia (OSCA) has been developed and adopted by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) and came into effect in June 2024 (OSCA – Occupation Standard Classification for Australia, 2024, Version 1.0 | Australian Bureau of Statistics).

Agencies that have previously collected and used ANZSCO classification information are adopting or have already adopted OSCA. This includes the federal Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA) and public sector commissions including the Victorian Public Sector Commission (VPSC).

OSCA continues to make use of 6-digit occupation classification codes and has the same five-level structure as ANZSCO.

However, occupations have been renumbered, retired, created, or have moved.

It will be necessary once the OSCA standard is adopted for the audit, that all your employees are re-coded to the new standard.

To do this most effectively, your employee occupations should be coded at the 6-digit level – for example,123456.

If possible, avoid coding at the coarser levels of the structure (1-digit major group – for example, 100000, 2-digit sub-major group – for example, 120000, 3-digit minor group – for example, 123000 or 4-digit unit group – for example, 123400)

We strongly encourage you to do this in 2025, as it will make the transition to OSCA simpler for you in 2027. It will also enable more accurate comparison of progress between 2025 and 2027.

The ABS already has tools to help organisations do this important work. The Commission will supplement these tools if it is beneficial.

Further information about the OSCA standard will be released with the 2027 progress audit guidance.

• Must be a valid 6-digit ANZSCO code (please refer to workforce reporting template for full list)
• Blanks not allowed

Use this field to indicate the postcode of the employee’s primary or ‘base’ work location, as at the end of the reporting period. For inactive employees, use the postcode of their last primary work location.

If possible, report the postcode where the employee works, not where the organisation is centrally located.

If an employee works at multiple locations, use the postcode where they spend the most time. For field staff, use the postcode of the relevant depot. For remote workers, use the postcode of the primary office into which they report.

If your organisation is unable to provide workplace postcodes for individual employees, use the postcode of your organisation’s head office.

• Must be a valid 4-digit postcode
• Blanks not allowed

Use this field to indicate the employee's home postcode, as at the end of the audit reporting period. For inactive employees, use their most recent postcode on record.

Leave this field blank if your organisation cannot provide this information at this time.

• Must be a valid 4-digit postcode
• Blanks allowed

Base salary is the full-time equivalent, annualised salary specified in the relevant employee agreement for the individual.

You will need to determine the base salary for each of your organisation’s active employees, as at the end of the audit reporting period.

If an employee is acting on a higher duties or secondment assignment for a period of more than 2 weeks at the end of the reporting period, report their base salary as though they had worked in that role for the entire reporting period. If the assignment is shorter than 2 weeks, report the salary from their substantive role.

For inactive employees, enter -$999,999 in this field. You do not need to determine base salary for inactive employees.

For active employees, including active casual employees, base salary should be reported as a full-time equivalent, annualised amount meaning that for:

• employees who commenced employment part-way through the 12-month audit reporting period need to have their salary annualised. That means you should report their base salary as if they had worked for the full year
• employees who worked part-time, you need to convert their earnings to a full-time equivalent. That means you should report what they would have been paid if they were employed full-time. For most part time employees this can be calculated by dividing their part-time rate by their FTE.

Examples:

• The following simple examples demonstrate 2 types of annualisation, one for a less than 12-month period of employment, and one for a part-time employee. Note that these examples only consider the wage payments components of the annualised salary. Actual annualisation must consider all relevant components of the employees pay and those components are outlined in the section below.
  • Employee A was recently employed on the first of June 2025. Their annual base salary is $100,000 and they work a full-time load (i.e. FTE = 1.0). Their reported base salary would be entered as $100,000, not the amount they earned in the month between when they started in their role and the end of the reporting period of 30 June 2025.
  • Employee B works a part time 2-day week and has an FTE of 0.4. Their annual base salary is $40,000. Their reported base salary should be entered as $100,000 after converting their annual base salary to a full-time equivalent value by dividing $40,000 by 0.4.

For casual employees who worked in the final pay period of the audit reporting period, you still need to convert their earnings to an annualised, full-time equivalent. That means you should report what they would have been paid if they worked the same number of hours and days as a full-time employee.

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.

Base salary should include the following components:

• Wages/salary payments
• Annual leave, leave loading and long service leave
• Carer/sick leave
• Employer-funded parental leave
• Penalty rates and shift loadings that are part of an employee's ordinary working hours
• Casual loadings
• Salary sacrificed amounts (such as employee superannuation contributions, car leases, childcare or rent)
• Workers compensation

Base salary should not include:

• Employer superannuation contributions
• Allowances
• Overtime

Base salary should never be lower than what someone would earn in a year working full-time on the national minimum wage. You should double-check your data if any active employee has a base salary below $40,000 and confirm that those values are correct, and valid.

Employees with a full-time equivalent base salary of less than $40,000 can be included if you advise us in the Remuneration data commentary within the Organisation(opens in a new window) dataset(opens in a new window) why the base salary is valid. Examples may include.

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

When including an explanation for low base salaries, ensure you also include the ‘unique reference’ of the relevant employees to aid in the Commission’s review of the data. Base salary is the full-time equivalent, annualised salary specified in the relevant employee agreement for the individual.

You will need to determine the base salary for each of your organisation’s active employees, as at the end of the audit reporting period.

If an employee is acting on a higher duties or secondment assignment for a period of more than 2 weeks at the end of the reporting period, report their base salary as though they had worked in that role for the entire reporting period. If the assignment is shorter than 2 weeks, report the salary from their substantive role.

For inactive employees, enter -$999,999 in this field. You do not need to determine base salary for inactive employees.

For active employees, including active casual employees, base salary should be reported as a full-time equivalent, annualised amount meaning that for:

• employees who commenced employment part-way through the 12-month audit reporting period need to have their salary annualised. That means you should report their base salary as if they had worked for the full year
• employees who worked part-time, you need to convert their earnings to a full-time equivalent. That means you should report what they would have been paid if they were employed full-time. For most part time employees this can be calculated by dividing their part-time rate by their FTE.

Examples:

• The following simple examples demonstrate 2 types of annualisation, one for a less than 12-month period of employment, and one for a part-time employee. Note that these examples only consider the wage payments components of the annualised salary. Actual annualisation must consider all relevant components of the employees pay and those components are outlined in the section below.
  • Employee A was recently employed on the first of June 2025. Their annual base salary is $100,000 and they work a full-time load (i.e. FTE = 1.0). Their reported base salary would be entered as $100,000, not the amount they earned in the month between when they started in their role and the end of the reporting period of 30 June 2025.
  • Employee B works a part time 2-day week and has an FTE of 0.4. Their annual base salary is $40,000. Their reported base salary should be entered as $100,000 after converting their annual base salary to a full-time equivalent value by dividing $40,000 by 0.4.

For casual employees who worked in the final pay period of the audit reporting period, you still need to convert their earnings to an annualised, full-time equivalent. That means you should report what they would have been paid if they worked the same number of hours and days as a full-time employee.

Please refer to the Remuneration resources page on our website if you aren't sure how to determine someone's annualised full-time equivalent base salary.

Base salary should include the following components:

• Wages/salary payments
• Annual leave, leave loading and long service leave
• Carer/sick leave
• Employer-funded parental leave
• Penalty rates and shift loadings that are part of an employee's ordinary working hours
• Casual loadings
• Salary sacrificed amounts (such as employee superannuation contributions, car leases, childcare or rent)
• Workers compensation

Base salary should not include:

• Employer superannuation contributions
• Allowances
• Overtime

Base salary should never be lower than what someone would earn in a year working full-time on the national minimum wage. You should double-check your data if any active employee has a base salary below $40,000 and confirm that those values are correct, and valid.

Employees with a full-time equivalent base salary of less than $40,000 can be included if you advise us in the Remuneration data commentary within the Organisation(opens in a new window) dataset(opens in a new window) why the base salary is valid. Examples may include.

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

When including an explanation for low base salaries, ensure you also include the ‘unique reference’ of the relevant employees to aid in the Commission’s review of the data.

• For Active employees:
• Must be a number greater than $0
• Can include up to 2 decimal places
• Must be annualised
• Must be converted to full-time equivalent
• Values below $40,000 must be explained
• Blanks not allowed
• For inactive employees:
• Enter -$999,999
• Blanks not allowed

Total remuneration is the full-time equivalent, annualised total take home pay of an employee, that is, the base salary plus any other payments made to the employee, including superannuation.

Total remuneration must be reported for all active employees as at the end of the reporting period.

For inactive employees, enter -$999,999 in this field. You do not need to determine total remuneration for inactive employees.

If an employee is acting on a higher duties or secondment assignment for a period of more than 2 weeks at the end of the reporting period, report the pro-rata elements of total remuneration as though they had worked in that role for the entire reporting period. If the assignment is shorter than 2 weeks, report their total remuneration based on their substantive role.

Total remuneration must be calculated as

• base salary, plus
• annualised, full-time equivalent superannuation, plus
• all payments made to the employee during the audit reporting period.

Total remuneration must always be equal to or greater than base salary plus minimum superannuation.

Some of the payments included in total remuneration can be reported as the actual amount paid. Others need to be converted to their annualised, full-time equivalent amounts. Please see below for examples of inclusions and how to report them.

If a payment is the same fixed amount regardless of the number of hours an employee works, use the actual amount paid to the employee. Examples of fixed payments include:

• first aid, clothing, accommodation or study allowances
• mobility payments
• fixed bonuses
• fixed discretionary pay
• overtime or penalty rates that are not part of an employee's usual working hours.

If the size of a payment depends on the number of hours an employee works (pro-rata), you may need to convert it to an annualised full-time equivalent amount. Examples of pro-rata payments include:

• employer superannuation contributions
• travel or meal allowances.

For active employees:

• Must be a number greater than or equal to Base salary plus superannuation
• Can include up to 2 decimal places
• Must be annualised
• Must be converted to full-time equivalent
• Blanks not allowed

For inactive employees:

• Enter -$999,999
• Blanks not allowed

Weekly pay is 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. Leave this field blank for inactive employees.

Your organisation might define full-time hours on:

• a daily basis (typically 7.5, 7.6 or 8 hours per day)
• a weekly basis (typically 37.5, 38 or 40 hours per week), or
• a fortnightly basis (typically 75, 76 or 80 hours per fortnight).

Include only the employee's base wages or salary before deductions such as tax and salary sacrifice.

Weekly pay should not include:

• penalty rates and shift loadings
• casual loadings
• employer superannuation contributions
• allowances
• overtime.

For employees paid on an hourly basis, calculate weekly pay by multiplying their hourly base rate of pay by the number of hours in one week at full-time hours.

For employees who are paid an annual salary, calculate weekly pay by dividing their annual salary by the number of weeks in the year.

Determine weekly pay based on the employee's last pay period worked within the 12-month audit reporting period.

Weekly pay should never be lower than what someone would earn in a week working full-time on the national minimum wage. You should double-check your data if any employee's weekly pay is below $800.

• If provided, must be a number greater than $0
• Can include up to 2 decimal places
• Double-check your data if any value is less than $800 for an active employee
• Blanks allowed

Use this field to indicate which employees were promoted during the 12-month audit reporting period.

A promotion refers to an existing employee being permanently appointed to a role at a classification higher than their previous role. This includes promotions awarded through competitive recruitment processes, as well as promotions awarded after a fixed period. This does not include temporary higher duties assignments or new roles at the same classification as the employee's previous role.

Use the value 'Data unavailable' if your organisation cannot provide this information at this time.

Note: as described in Summary of changes between 2023 and 2025(opens in a new window), the ‘Data unavailable’ option for this field will be removed for the 2027 audit.

• Yes, there was at least 1 occurrence within the reporting period (Y)
• No, there were no occurrences within the reporting period (N)
• Data unavailable (DU)

Use this field to indicate which employees accessed career development training during the 12-month audit reporting period.

Career development training opportunities assist employees to progress their careers by building on their capacity and skills.

Common examples of career development training include:

• Leadership courses
• Training to build new skills such as project management or public speaking
• VPS micro-credentials

For this field career development training does not include:

• Onboarding or routine requirements like Code of Conduct training
• First aid and CPR courses
• Routine training required to maintain an existing professional or trade certification

Organisations are encouraged to develop their own operational definitions of career development training to facilitate a meaningful gendered analysis.

Use the value 'Data unavailable' if your organisation cannot provide this information at this time.

Note: as described in Summary of changes between 2023 and 2025(opens in a new window), the ‘Data unavailable’ option for this field will be removed for the 2027 audit.

• Yes, there was at least 1 occurrence within the reporting period (Y)
• No, there were no occurrences within the reporting period (N)
• Data unavailable (DU)

Use this field to indicate which employees had higher duties assignments during the 12-month audit reporting period.

A higher duties assignment is a temporary internal arrangement where an employee moves into a higher classification for a period of more than 2 weeks. This does not include permanent promotions or lateral transfers at the same classification.

Use the value 'Data unavailable' if your organisation cannot provide this information at this time (DU)

Note: as described in Summary of changes between 2023 and 2025(opens in a new window), the ‘Data unavailable’ option for this field will be removed for the 2027 audit.

• Yes, there was at least 1 occurrence within the reporting period (Y)
• No, there were no occurrences within the reporting period (N)
• Data unavailable (DU)

Use this field to indicate which employees had internal secondments during the 12-month reporting period.

A secondment is a temporary internal arrangement where an employee moves into another role at the same classification for a period of more than 2 weeks. This does not include higher duties assignments (at a higher classification than the employee's substantive role) or external secondments outside your organisation.

If your organisation offered internal secondments during the audit period:

• but cannot determine whether the employee had an internal secondment, use the value ‘DU’
• and can determine that the employee did not have an internal secondment, use the value ‘N,
• and the employee had one or more occurrences of an internal secondment, use the value ‘Y’.

If your organisation did not offer internal secondments for any employee during the audit period, use the value ‘DU’.

If all of your employees have been entered with the value ‘N’ or ‘DU’ ensure that you add commentary to the Promotions, training, secondment and higher duties data commentary section of the Organisation (opens in a new window)dataset(opens in a new window) to explain the reason why the data has been entered that way (DU)

Note: as described in Summary of changes between 2023 and 2025(opens in a new window), the ‘Data unavailable’ option for this field will be removed for the 2027 audit.

• Yes, there was at least 1 occurrence within the reporting period (Y)
• No, there were no occurrences within the reporting period (N)
• Data unavailable (DU)

Use this field to indicate which employees had a formal flexible work arrangement in place, as at the end of the audit reporting period.

Part-time or remote working arrangements that are mandated or instigated by an employer, such as an employee’s position being advertised as part-time, should not be considered flexible work arrangements.

Only formal flexible work arrangements with the individual employee should be reported in this field. That is, an arrangement that has been requested by the employee, granted by the employer and documented/recorded accordingly.

Organisation-wide flexible work availability and the existence of flexible work policies are not formal flexible work arrangements in this context

To describe any organisation-wide flexible work arrangements (for example, hybrid work arrangement), please include details in the Flexible work and leave data commentary section in the Organisation dataset(opens in a new window).

Examples of flexible work arrangements include:

• working more hours over fewer days
• flexible start and finish times
• working remotely on days chosen by the employee
• working part-time during hours or days chosen by the employee
• shift swap
• job sharing
• study leave
• purchased leave
• using leave to work flexible hours.

Please refer to any industrial instruments relevant to your organisation for other definitions and requirements related to flexible work.

Use the value 'Data unavailable' if your organisation cannot provide this information at this time (DU)

Note: as described in Summary of changes between 2023 and 2025(opens in a new window), the ‘Data unavailable’ option for this field will be removed for the 2027 audit.

• Yes, there was at least 1 occurrence within the reporting period (Y)
• No, there were no occurrences within the reporting period (N)
• Data unavailable (DU)

Use this field to indicate the types of formal flexible work arrangements in place for each person, as at the end of the audit reporting period.

If the person used multiple types of flexible work, format the selections as a list delimited with vertical bars like this: A|B|C

Use the value 'Not on a formal flexible work arrangement' for people who did not use any type of formal flexible work arrangement.

Use the value 'Data unavailable' if your organisation cannot provide this information at this time.

Note: as described in Summary of changes between 2023 and 2025(opens in a new window), the ‘Data unavailable’ option for this field will be removed for the 2027 audit.

For more information about what qualifies as a formal flexible work arrangement, please refer to the Formal flexible work arrangement data field description.

• Flexible start and finish times (A)
• Job sharing (B)
• Purchased leave (C)
• Shift swap (D)
• Study leave (E)
• Using leave to work flexible hours (F)
• Working more hours over fewer days (G)
• Working part-time (H)
• Working remotely (I)
• Another kind of flexible work arrangement not listed (J)
• Not on a formal flexible work arrangement (K)
• Data unavailable (DU)

Use this field to capture how much paid parental leave each employee took. Complete this field for every employee whose parental leave ended during the 12-month audit reporting period.

Parental leave may be classified as Primary Carers/Maternity/Birth Parent Leave or Partner/Secondary Carers Parental Leave. This also includes adoption or surrogacy-related leave.

Report the full duration of the paid parental leave the employee used, even if a portion of it fell outside the 12-month audit reporting period.

For example:

• Your organisation's audit reporting period began on 1 July 2024.
• An employee took 13 weeks of paid parental leave starting on 1 June 2024 and concluding on 31 August 2024.
• You should report them as using the full 13 weeks of paid parental leave, even though 4 weeks of that leave fell outside of the audit period.

Where an employee has received more than one parental leave entitlement, only report the amount of parental leave taken for the entitlement that ended within the reporting period.

For example:

• An employee received 2 separate entitlements to parental leave.
• 20 weeks of leave were taken in and ended in 2020.
• 15 weeks of leave were taken in and ended in the audit reporting period in 2024.
• As the 15-week parental leave entitlement ended in the reporting period, only 15 weeks of parental leave should be reported.

Calculate the number of weeks of paid parental leave each person took based on the standard working week hours for that employee.

For example, if the person worked 24 hours per week before taking parental leave, and they took 72 hours of paid parental leave, you should report them as using 3 weeks of paid parental leave.

Parental leave taken at half pay should be apportioned between paid and unpaid weeks.

For example, if someone took 12 weeks of parental leave at half pay, you should report them as using 6 weeks of paid parental leave and 6 weeks of unpaid parental leave.

Enter 0 for people who did not take paid parental leave during the audit reporting period, and for people whose paid parental leave was still ongoing at the end of the audit reporting period.

Use the value -999,999 if your organisation cannot provide this information at this time.

Note: as described in Summary of changes between 2023 and 2025(opens in a new window), the ‘Data unavailable’ option (-999,999) for this field will be removed for the 2027 audit.

• For employees who took parental leave that ended in the period:
• Must be a number greater than 0
• Can include up to 2 decimal places
• Blanks not allowed
• For employees who did not take parental leave:
• Must be 0
• Blanks not allowed
• For employees whose parental leave was ongoing at the end of the audit reporting period
• Must be 0
• Blanks not allowed
• For employees where data is unavailable
• Must be -999,999
• Blanks not allowed

Use this field to capture how much unpaid parental leave each employee took. Complete this field for every employee whose parental leave ended during the 12-month audit reporting period(opens in a new window).

Parental leave may be classified as Primary Carers/Maternity/Birth Parent Leave or Partner/Secondary Carers Parental Leave. This also includes adoption or surrogacy-related leave.

Report the full duration of the unpaid parental leave, ending in the reporting period the employee used, even if a portion of it fell outside the 12-month audit reporting period.

For example:

• Your organisation's audit reporting period began on 1 July 2024.
• An employee took 13 weeks of unpaid parental leave starting on 1 June 2024 and concluding on 31 August 2024.
• You should report them as using the full 13 weeks of unpaid parental leave even though four weeks of that leave fell outside of the audit period.

Only report the amount of parental leave taken from the parental leave entitlement ending within the reporting period. Do not include parental leave from previous entitlements to parental leave.

For example:

• An employee received an entitlement to parental leave twice.
• 20 weeks of leave were taken in and ended in 2020.
• 15 weeks of leave were taken in and ended in the audit reporting period in 2024
• As only the second parental leave entitlement concluded in the reporting period, only 15 weeks of parental leave should be reported

Calculate the number of weeks of unpaid parental leave each person took based on the standard working week hours for that employee. For example, if the person worked 24 hours per week before taking parental leave, and they took 72 hours of unpaid parental leave, you should report them as using 3 weeks of unpaid parental leave.

Parental leave taken at half pay should be apportioned between paid and unpaid weeks. For example, if someone took 12 weeks of parental leave at half pay, you should report them as using 6 weeks of paid parental leave and 6 weeks of unpaid parental leave.

Enter 0 for people who did not take unpaid parental leave during the audit reporting period, and for people whose unpaid parental leave was still ongoing at the end of the audit reporting period.

Enter -999,999 if your organisation cannot provide this information at this time.

Note: as described in Summary of changes between 2023 and 2025(opens in a new window), the ‘Data unavailable’ option (-999,999) for this field will be removed for the 2027 audit.

For employees who took parental leave that ended in the period:

• Must be a number greater than 0
• Can include up to 2 decimal places
• Blanks not allowed

For employees who did not take parental leave:

• Must be 0
• Blanks not allowed

For employees whose parental leave was ongoing at the end of the audit reporting period

• Must be 0
• Blanks not allowed

For employees where data is unavailable

• Must be -999,999
• Blanks not allowed

Use this field to indicate whether or not the employee exited your organisation during parental leave.

Use the value 'Voluntary' if the person voluntarily left the organisation during parental leave (for example, due to resignation).

Use the value 'Involuntary' if the person involuntarily left the organisation during parental leave (for example, due to termination or redundancy).

Use the value 'Not applicable' if the person did not leave the organisation during parental leave. This includes:

• employees who took parental leave, but did not exit the organisation
• employees who exited the organisation, but not during parental leave
• employees who did not take parental leave
• employees who did not exit the organisation.

Use the value 'Data unavailable' if your organisation cannot provide this information at this time.

Note: as described in Summary of changes between 2023 and 2025(opens in a new window), the ‘Data unavailable’ option for this field will be removed for the 2027 audit.

• Voluntary (A)
• Involuntary (B)
• Not applicable (C)
• Data unavailable (DU)

Use this field to indicate which employees accessed carers leave during the 12-month audit reporting period.

Use the value 'Data unavailable' if your organisation cannot provide this information at this time

Note: as described in Summary of changes between 2023 and 2025, the ‘Data unavailable’ option for this field will be removed for the 2027 audit.

• Yes, there was at least 1 occurrence within the reporting period (Y)
• No, there were no occurrences within the reporting period (N)
• Data unavailable (DU)