Canadian Pay Transparency: B.C.. Guidelines Go Live November 1
Effective November 1, 2023, all employers in British Columbia will be required to specify the expected salary or wage range for all publicly advertised job posting. In a related development, the provincial government of British Columbia has recently published a guidance document (the “Guidelines”), which seeks to clarify the relevant employer compliance requirements.
The British Columbia Pay Transparency Act, (“PTA”) was supposedly introduced to help address what the current government in B.C. believes are pay inequalities between men and women in British Columbia. The theory is that imposing a disclosure obligation may act to help close the gender pay gap. The PTA received Royal Assent and was thus passed into law on May 11, 2023.
While the Guidelines do not have the same legal force as the PTA itself or any future regulations, it is quite helpful to have government guidance, which is likely to shape how the law will be enforced and thus complied with. The Guidelines also specifically address certain “nuts and bolts” points which a number of employers and their advisors have been about.
The following are key takeaways from the Guidelines, and what we might expect now that the PTA is in force:
Employers will only be required to include an employee's expected base salary or wage in job postings. Employers may wish to voluntarily include additional details beyond the base salary or wage such as bonuses, benefits, commission, tips or overtime pay. However, including these additional details is not necessary. Instead, the PTA relates only to “pay”, which will be construed narrowly to mean the base salary or wage.
The salary or wage range must have a specified minimum and maximum. As a result, employers will not be compliant if the job advertisement described the salary or wage range as "up to $20 per hour" or “$20 per hour and up". The examples provided in the Guidelines of acceptable ranges include “$20-$30 per hour” or “$40,000 – $60,000 per year”. Currently, there are no guidelines as to how large the expected salary or wage range can be in a job advertisement in order to satisfy PTA requirements. This point and related issues may be the subject of future regulations.
Employers and applicants are not restricted by the expected salary or wage range advertised. Applicants may request a higher salary or wage than advertised, and there is no restriction on agreeing to pay above the publicized range. Similarly, employers may agree to pay a higher salary or wage than what was publicly advertised.
The requirement to publish salary or wage information under the PTA applies to jobs advertised in jurisdictions outside of British Columbia as well, so long as the job in question is open to British Columbia residents and may be filled by someone living in British Columbia, either in-person or remotely.
The requirement to publish salary or wage information also applies to jobs posted by third parties on job search websites, job boards and other recruitment platforms on behalf of the employer. In other words, the use of an intermediary or agent does not result in the PTA rules being disapplied.
The requirement to publish salary or wage information does not apply to either of: (a) general “help wanted” posters and recruitment campaigns that do not mention specific job opportunities; or (b) job postings that are not posted publicly.
Employers who employ employees in British Columbia should familiarize themselves with the new obligations under the PTA, since they must now make sure that their practices and relevant documentation is compliant. What remains to be seen is whether these new rules will have an impact beyond B.C. – it is entirely possible that organizations with employees across Canada may need to consider the need to impact these rules on employees outside of B.C., and the resulting need to potentially be required to “comply up”. As a result, pay transparency may soon become more prevalent across Canada, all driven by the PTA obligations.