Actually for references '==' is comparing for the same instance (referential equality). For recent enough perls the smartmatch ~~ operator can do at least a first level check for structural or object equality. If you want to compare if they more deeply nested structures contain the same contents you need do more work; see the FAQ "How do I test whether two arrays or hashes are equal?".

$ perl -MTest::More -dE 0
[...]
  DB<1> $a = { qw/a 1 b 2/ }

  DB<2> $b = { qw/a 1 b 2/ }

  DB<3> x $a
0  HASH(0x7f9140905ad0)
   'a' => 1
   'b' => 2
  DB<4> x $b
0  HASH(0x7f914090b698)
   'a' => 1
   'b' => 2
  DB<5> x $a == $b
0  ''
  DB<6> x is_deeply( $a, $b )
ok 1
0  1
  DB<7> x is_deeply( $a, {} )
not ok 2
#   Failed test at /Users/nbkawb9/perl5/lib/perl5/Test/Builder.pm line
+ 152.
#     Structures begin differing at:
#          $got->{a} = '1'
#     $expected->{a} = Does not exist
0  0
  DB<8> q
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Additionally: For real fun check out Lisp which has several predicates for different amounts of equality.

Edit: Tweaked slightly ambiguous "they" to more explicit wording.