Pay Secrecy Clauses Are Now Illegal in Australia — What This Means for You (2026)
Since 7 June 2023, employers cannot stop you from discussing your pay. Learn how the new pay secrecy laws work, the penalties employers face, and how pay transparency helps close the gender pay gap.
What changed: pay secrecy clauses are now banned
On 7 June 2023, sweeping changes to Australian workplace law came into effect under the Fair Work Legislation Amendment (Secure Jobs, Better Pay) Act 2022. Among the most significant reforms was an outright ban on pay secrecy clauses. New section 333B of the Fair Work Act 2009 gives every employee and prospective employee a 'workplace right' to disclose — or choose not to disclose — information about their own remuneration and the terms and conditions of their employment that are reasonably necessary to determine their remuneration outcomes. This means your employer cannot include a clause in your contract that prohibits you from telling colleagues, friends, family, or anyone else what you earn. If your contract was signed before 7 June 2023 and contains such a clause, that clause has no effect from that date — it is treated as if it does not exist, regardless of what you signed. The law applies to all national system employees, which covers the vast majority of private-sector workers in Australia (approximately 85% of the workforce). State public servants may be covered by equivalent state legislation depending on their jurisdiction. The reform was designed to address a fundamental power imbalance: when employees cannot discuss pay, employers can maintain discriminatory pay gaps without scrutiny.
The old rule: how pay secrecy clauses kept workers in the dark
Before the 2023 reforms, pay secrecy clauses were extremely common in Australian employment contracts. A 2022 survey by the Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA) found that approximately 50% of Australian employers had some form of pay confidentiality requirement in their employment agreements. These clauses took various forms — from blanket prohibitions on discussing remuneration with anyone, to more targeted restrictions on sharing salary information with colleagues. The clauses were largely enforceable. While the Fair Work Act had general protections for workplace rights, there was no specific protection for pay disclosure. Employees who breached pay secrecy clauses risked disciplinary action, and in some cases, termination for serious misconduct (breach of a contractual obligation). The practical effect was that workers had no way to know whether they were being paid fairly relative to colleagues performing the same or comparable work. This created an information asymmetry that particularly disadvantaged women, workers from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, and younger workers who lacked the bargaining experience or confidence to negotiate effectively. Employers could — and research suggests some did — maintain pay disparities precisely because the affected workers had no visibility into what others were earning. The secrecy itself was the mechanism of discrimination.
The new s333B provisions: what the law actually says
Section 333B of the Fair Work Act 2009 creates a 'pay conditions transparency' workplace right. The provision has several key components. First, it establishes that an employee has the right to disclose or not disclose their remuneration, or any terms and conditions of employment that are reasonably necessary to determine their remuneration. This covers not just base salary but bonuses, allowances, overtime rates, commission structures, and other remuneration-related terms. Second, any term of an employment contract that purports to prevent or restrict an employee from disclosing this information is of no effect — it is void. This applies to contracts entered into after 7 June 2023 immediately, and to pre-existing contracts from that date. Third, the right applies to prospective employees as well — job candidates cannot be required to keep pay confidential as a condition of an offer. Fourth, the right extends to disclosing information about another employee's pay only where that information was disclosed to you by the other employee voluntarily. You cannot, for example, access payroll records and distribute them. Section 333C creates a parallel right for prospective employees, and s333D makes it unlawful for an employer to include pay secrecy terms in new contracts from 7 December 2023 (six months after commencement).
Penalties for employers: $93,900 per contravention
The penalties for breaching the pay secrecy provisions are substantial. Under the Fair Work Act's civil remedy framework, an employer who includes a pay secrecy clause in an employment contract entered into after 7 December 2023 commits a contravention of s333D. The maximum penalty is 60 penalty units per contravention — currently $93,900 for a body corporate (at $1,565 per penalty unit as of 2025-26). For an individual (such as a sole trader or a manager who was personally involved in the contravention), the maximum penalty is $18,780 (12 penalty units). Each contract that contains such a clause is a separate contravention, meaning an employer who includes pay secrecy clauses in, say, 100 employment contracts faces a theoretical maximum exposure of $9.39 million. Beyond the pay secrecy clause itself, an employer who takes adverse action against an employee for exercising their workplace right to discuss pay faces general protections claims under Part 3-1 of the Fair Work Act. This includes dismissal, demotion, refusing to promote, altering duties, or any other action that disadvantages the employee because they discussed their remuneration. The penalties for adverse action are significantly higher — up to $469,500 for a body corporate per contravention. The Fair Work Ombudsman has indicated pay transparency enforcement is an active priority.
How pay transparency helps close the gender pay gap
The connection between pay secrecy and the gender pay gap is well-documented. As of February 2026, the national gender pay gap in Australia stands at approximately 21.8% (based on average weekly full-time ordinary time earnings, ABS data). Research consistently shows that pay secrecy enables and perpetuates pay discrimination. A landmark 2023 study by the Workplace Gender Equality Agency found that organisations with higher levels of pay transparency had gender pay gaps averaging 5-8 percentage points lower than those with pay secrecy cultures. When employees can discuss pay, several things happen. Women and other disadvantaged groups can identify when they are being underpaid relative to colleagues performing comparable work. Employers face reputational pressure to justify and correct disparities. Collective bargaining is strengthened because workers have better information. And hiring discrimination — offering lower salaries to candidates perceived as unlikely to negotiate — becomes visible. The pay secrecy ban works alongside other Secure Jobs, Better Pay reforms including the prohibition on pay secrecy in enterprise agreements, enhanced equal remuneration provisions in s302 of the Fair Work Act, and the requirement for large employers (100+ employees) to report gender pay gaps to WGEA. Together, these reforms create an ecosystem where pay discrimination is harder to hide. If you suspect you are being paid less than a comparable colleague, discussing pay is now your legally protected right — and it is one of the most effective tools you have.
What you can and cannot do under the new laws
The pay secrecy reforms give you broad rights, but there are limits worth understanding. What you can do: disclose your own salary, hourly rate, bonus structure, commission arrangement, or any other remuneration term to anyone — colleagues, friends, family, a union, a journalist, or an online forum. You can ask colleagues what they earn (though they have the right to decline). You can use pay information shared with you voluntarily by a colleague to support a pay equity claim or bargaining position. You can raise a pay disparity with your employer, your union, or the Fair Work Ombudsman without fear of adverse action. What you cannot do: access payroll records, HR databases, or other confidential employer systems to obtain other employees' pay information — this remains a breach of confidentiality and potentially a criminal offence. You cannot disclose a colleague's pay information if they shared it with you in confidence and asked you not to disclose it (this is a matter of privacy law, not the Fair Work Act). You cannot use pay information to harass, bully, or humiliate a colleague. If you are unsure whether you are being paid fairly, the most effective first step is a simple one: ask a trusted colleague in a comparable role what they earn. If there is a disparity, use our Pay Rate Lookup and Underpaid Check tools to verify what the applicable award or enterprise agreement requires.
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General information and estimates only — not legal, financial, or tax advice. Always verify with the Fair Work Ombudsman (13 13 94) or a qualified professional.
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