Employee Remuneration Disclosure Bill

The Employment Relations (Employee Remuneration Disclosure) Amendment Bill passed its third reading on 20 August 2025.  The Bill will become law pending Royal Assent by the Governor-General in the coming weeks.

The Bill creates new rights for employees:

• Employees can now disclose, share and discuss their pay without fear of discipline from their employer.
• Pay secrecy clauses in employment agreements are no longer valid.
• Employers cannot retaliate or penalise employees who talk about their pay.

For employees, this Bill provides greater pay transparency, stronger bargaining power and aims to help close unfair pay gaps.  While it shouldn’t be seen as a signal to start asking all your colleagues what they get paid over the morning break, any conversations that do take place will be protected by this legislation.

For employers, this Bill means they need to be prepared to explain how pay is set in a fair and transparent way.  Employers should also review their employment agreements, remove secrecy clauses and update their template agreements to effect compliance.  Where employers already have transparent and robust systems in place to assess employee performance and set remuneration, these changes are unlikely to cause much unrest.  For those employers who are still on that journey of working towards fairer systems and checks, this legislation might be a good opportunity to make that happen.

Employment Law Assistance

Our Workplace Law Team are able to assist with all employment processes and any other bespoke employment queries you may have. 

Chantelle is an Associate in our Workplace Law Team and can be contacted on 07 958 7473.