Guidance for Canadian Pay Transparency
Pay transparency laws attempt to mitigate pay inequality. Datapeople now provides in-app guidance for Canadian employers impacted by these new and ever-growing laws.
In recent years, Canada has taken significant strides toward fostering greater workplace transparency by implementing pay transparency legislation. The aim is to address longstanding concerns about wage gaps and promote equity within the workforce. Just as in the United States, Canadian states and provinces have started implementing laws requiring disclosure of salary ranges for job postings.
Salary ranges in job posts
While there are varying types of pay transparency laws in effect (think employers needing to disclose pay upon an applicant’s request), requiring employers to disclose salary information in a job post is quickly growing. In Canada, multiple states have introduced salary disclsoure legislation in in job posts, but only two have enacted this legislation. These are:
- British Columbia: In November 2023, British Columbia government passed the Pay Transparency Act which requires employers to post expected salaries and wages for job postings.
- Prince Edward Island: In November 2021, Prince Edward Island amended the Employment Standards Act which define salary-disclosure requirements for job postings.
B.C. Clarifications
British Columbia's legislation has been clarified in two important ways.
1. While job postings don’t need to include information on bonuses, overtime, tips or benefits, the posted salary range must have a specific upper and lower limit.
2. The salary disclosure requirement applies to jobs syndicated on third-party websites (i.e. search engines like Indeed, LinkedIn) and to jobs advertised in other jurisdictions if the position is open to British Columbia residents.
One interpretation of this clause is that all Canadian remote jobs should include salary range disclosure unless there is a strong justification for why the job cannot be performed in British Columbia.
Delayed enactment
In addition, a few other states have passed legislation but delayed enactment. These include:
- Ontario: In April 2018, the Ontario government passed Bill 3, the Pay Transparency Act. However, the act was never brought into force following the change of government. The government is introducing the Working for Workers Four Act 2023 which will require employers to include expected salary ranges in job postings.
- Newfoundland and Labrador: In November 2022, Newfoundland and Labrador passed Pay Transparency and Pay Equity Act which require employers to include information regarding pay in publicly advertised job postings. While the act has been enacted, the pay transparency sections of the Act have yet to come into force.
How Datapeople helps you comply with pay transparency laws
Most hiring teams don’t have the bandwidth to keep up with ever-changing employment laws. However, not adhering to these laws can wreak havoc for your company. To help ensure compliance with pay transparency laws, Datapeople’s job description software reminds you of salary requirements in three ways:
- If you’re writing a job post for a location that requires salary transparency in Canada, Datapeople alerts your team to add compensation details if they’re not detected in the job post.
- Teams advertising jobs in states or municipalities where pay transparency laws are coming soon will receive warnings of the imminent changes.
- If your company has a policy to voluntarily disclose salary in job posts, Datapeople will alert your team to add compensation details.
If the current trend continues, we can likely expect other Canadian states and cities to follow suit. Datapeople will, of course, continue to update our platform as these changes occur.