British Columbia’s (BC) new Pay Transparency Act (the Act) was passed on May 11, 2023, imposing limitations on employers in the hiring process, as well as obligations to report pay. The Act also creates the role of  Director of Pay Transparency. The key obligations are as follows:

• Pay history: Employers must not ask job applicants their previous pay rate;
• Job postings: Employers must include the expected pay or pay range for publicly posted jobs from November 1, 2023, onwards;
• Pay secrecy: Employers must not discipline or otherwise harass an employee who asks about their pay, reveals their pay to another employee or someone applying to work with their employer; asks their employer about its pay transparency report, or gives information to the Director of Pay Transparency about their employer; and
• Pay transparency report: Applicable employers must complete and post pay transparency reports, which will be published annually on June 1 by the Ministry of Finance. Applicable employers currently include the government and specified Crown corporations; however, starting November 1, 2024, all employers with 1,000 or more employees will be required to comply. By 2027, all employers in BC will be required to complete and post pay transparency reports unless exempted by regulation.

British Columbia trails the path of most other provinces in imposing pay transparency obligations,¹ many of which² also have pay equity obligations requiring employers to not only disclose pay, but ensure that pay is equitable amongst similarly positioned employees. Alberta and Saskatchewan are the only provinces without any such legislation.

So what does this really mean for employers in British Columbia?

The Act does not currently set out penalties for noncompliant employers or oblige employers to disclose any inequities in pay. It also does not designate a particular body, such as the Employment Standards Branch, to investigate or discipline employers, so it is unclear what enforcement of the Act may look like. Currently, there are no enforcement mechanisms in the Act.

Despite the lack of enforcement provisions under the Act, there are existing pay equity protections for employees under section 12 of the Human Rights Code, which prohibits employers from discriminating in wages between similarly positioned employees on the basis of sex. This places the onus on employees to initiate a complaints process with the BC Human Rights Tribunal in order to address concerns with respect to wage discrimination.

Employers should comply with the new obligations under the Act and anticipate that noncompliance in pay inequities can be enforced under the human rights regime. Employers should take steps to confirm that they are compliant with pay transparency and pay equity requirements, along with best practices, as we anticipate this area will be subject to increased scrutiny in the coming years.

For more information on this topic, please contact the authors Rachel Au and Victoria Merritt, or any member of our employment and labour group in Vancouver.

¹ Manitoba, Ontario, Québec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and Labrador, and Prince Edward Island.↩

² All except Newfoundland and Labrador.↩