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Special thanks to our articling student Madison Bruno for contributing to this update.

On November 14, the Ontario Government introduced Bill 149, Working for Workers Four Act, 2023. If passed as expected, Bill 149 would significantly change several employment statutes, building on the Working for Workers Acts, 2021, 2022, and 2023. Key changes include: new requirements for Ontario employers to disclose pay information in job postings; a new obligation to disclose whether artificial intelligence was used during the hiring process; and it would prohibit using Canadian work experience as a job requirement.Continue Reading Ontario Poised to Pass Major Changes to Job Posting Requirements

Special thanks to our articling student Ravneet Minhas for contributing to this update.

In a previous post, we discussed the legislative trend for greater pay transparency across Canada, including in British Columbia with the recent adoption of the Pay Transparency Act.

The British Columbia government has since released guidance on the application of the Act. This clarifies the requirement to include salary or wage information in all publicly advertised job postings, effective November 1, 2023.

Required Wage and Salary Information in Job Postings

To comply with the Act, employers (and third parties posting on behalf of an employer) must include the expected wage or salary or expected wage or salary range in job postings. For example:

  • $20 per hour; or
  • $40,000 to $60,000 per year.

The wage or salary range cannot be unspecified or open-ended. For example, stating that a job pays “$20-$30 per hour” would comply with the Act, while “$20 per hour and up” would not.

The Province leaves it to the employer’s discretion to decide how extensive the advertised wage or salary range may be. Further, employers are not required to include bonus pay, overtime pay, tips, or benefits in their job postings. The above requirements do not prevent an applicant from requesting a higher wage or salary than the amount advertised. Similarly, employers are free to offer an applicant a higher wage or salary than the one included in the job posting.Continue Reading Update: New Guidance Details Requirements Under the British Columbia Pay Transparency Act

Special thanks to our summer associate Daniel Dai for contributing to this update.

British Columbia’s Pay Transparency Act, which received royal assent on May 11, 2023, imposes pay disclosure and reporting obligations on both public and private sector employers to address systemic discrimination in the workplace. It is the latest in a series of new pay transparency laws across Canada.

This push for more transparency to bridge the pay gap for historically disadvantaged groups is a global trend. In the United States, 8 states, including California, Colorado and Washington, along with cities like New York City, have recently adopted salary disclosure laws. There is also pending legislation at the federal level—the Salary Transparency Act—that would require all job postings to include the wage or wage range for a position. Similarly, the European Parliament approved the Pay Transparency Directive in March 2023, which is set to enter into force in 2024. Among other things, this Directive establishes a right to certain pay information and imposes pre-employment pay disclosure obligations on both public and private sector EU employers.

Recent Canadian Developments

Continue Reading The Legislative Push for Pay Transparency in Canada Mirrors Global Trend

To mark International Women’s Day, we’re pleased to share an article from our US colleagues on recent efforts to close the gender pay gap, including salary history bans in the US and global efforts toward transparency reporting. The article, authored by Todd Boyer, Caroline Burnett and Elizabeth Ebersole, can be accessed here.

On November 15, 2018, the Ontario government introduced legislation to, among other things, delay the January 1, 2019 in force date of the Pay Transparency Act, 2018  (“Act”). Bill 57, Restoring Trust, Transparency and Accountability Act, 2018, is omnibus legislation to enact, amend and repeal various statutes and is currently at the Second Reading stage.
Continue Reading Ontario Proposes Delay & Rethinking of Pay Transparency Act

The Ontario government has passed Bill 3, Pay Transparency Act, 2018. The Act imposes requirements on employers to promote equality of compensation between men and women, and to increase the transparency of information regarding compensation and workforce composition. The Act is set to come into force on January 1, 2019.
Continue Reading Pay Transparency Obligations Coming But Not Until January 1, 2019