Canada: Pay Transparency Legislation Entered into Force in British Columbia

As we reported last May, British Colombia adopted the Pay Transparency Act, which addresses systemic discrimination in the workplace and aims to reduce pay gaps affecting women, people of colour, people with disabilities, and non-binary people.
According to the Act, employers can no longer ask job applicants about what they were paid in previous positions.
From 1 November 2023, all employers in British Columbia must include pay ranges in job postings, prepare reports identifying systemic pay discrimination, and disclose pay information to employees and applicants upon request.
The Pay Transparency Regulation (BC Reg 225/2023) was released on 23 October 2023 and is now in force. It provides details on the mandatory contents of the remuneration transparency reports.

The requirement to publish wage and salary information applies to all employers, including those based outside British Columbia (BC), who publish a job opportunity that could be filled by a BC resident, whether in person or remotely. The employer must specify the expected wage or salary range.

The obligation should not include additional information on bonuses, overtime, tips, or benefits.

The law also requires annual pay transparency reports detailing pay differences between employees in different gender categories (male, female, non-binary, and unknown), providing information on the gender pay gap. The report should include specific indications for each gender category regarding hourly rates, overtime pay, overtime hours, and bonuses.

The reporting obligation will come into effect in stages from 1 November 2023 to 1 November 2026, in descending order of employer size.

Employers will, therefore, have to check that their job advertisements comply with the requirements of the law and prepare the required salary reports.

The Ontario government also recently stated that it would soon introduce legislation requiring employers to include expected salary ranges in job postings if passed.

Pay transparency is a highly topical principle on a global level.

In Europe, following the introduction of the European Directive, many countries are adapting to the new legislation (you can find here an interesting insight on the topic and an updated map on the gender pay reporting requirements worldwide)