The provincial government has announced new legislation that will bring new requirements to employers around salary and pay transparency. In an effort to address possible pay discrepancies between genders, the legislation contains three key provisions with varying degrees of impact on employers and potential action on pay equity.

Inquiring About Pay

The new law will prohibit an employer from asking about the payment history of a job applicant, either by directly asking the applicant or by going through a 3rd party. This rule has been suggested as a way of supporting equal pay by not perpetuating a scenario where someone has been previously underpaid. 

The new law will also prohibit an employer from disciplining in any way existing employees for disclosing or discussing their pay.  Employers may have policies that forbid employees from discussing their salaries with other employees or with future applicants, and this law would prohibit this type of rule or restriction. This change would need to be effectively communicated to ensure businesses do not run afoul of it inadvertently. 

Disclosing Salary

Employers will be required to include any publicly-advertised employment opportunities to specify the wage or expected salary range for the position. This could potentially result in the exposure of personal salaries for others in similar jobs, and employers who may offer varying salary ranges based on experience and qualifications. The law allows for potential future exemptions for some businesses, including small businesses. 

Pay Transparency Reports   

The law will require employers to publicly issue Pay Transparency Report each year, which shares data on pay levels for various positions, comparing genders and possibly other demographic information.  This would require employers to annually collect demographic information in order to issue this report.  

This will initially impact the BC government and Crown corporations on November 1 of this year. And then it will expand to:

    - Employers with 1,000 employees or more in 2024

    - Employers with 300 employees or more in 2025

    - Employers with 50 employees or more in 2026

This rule is being put forth as a way of encouraging public and peer accountability and pushing employers to address any revealed pay discrepancies. 

For more information on BC’s gender wage gap, please click the link HERE.

For Statistics Canada’s gender wage stats for 20222, please check it out HERE.