June 10, 2024 

BC employers now have access to an online reporting tool designed to streamline the preparation of pay transparency reports. This initiative supports compliance with the Pay Transparency Act, enacted on May 11, 2023.

The tool enables employers to upload unidentifiable data on employees’ gender and pay, which will then generate an automated report.

Key deadlines for compliance with the Act have been staggered to allow employers ample preparation time:

Deadlines employers must publish reports detailing gender-pay discrepancies:

• November 1, 2023: The BC Public Service and the six largest Crown corporations (ICBC, BC Hydro, WorkSafeBC, BC Housing, BC Lottery Corporation, and BC Transit)
• November 1, 2024: All employers with 1,000 employees or more
• November 1, 2025: Employers with 300 employees or more
• November 1, 2026: Employers with 50 employees or more

Additionally, since last year, all BC employers must disclose salary or wage information in all publicly posted job advertisements. As of February 2024, 49% of job postings across Canada included pay details, whereas BC boasts a higher compliance rate of 76% according to Indeed.

The first annual pay transparency report, from Statistics Canada data and last year's employer submissions, has been published. This report offers a detailed examination of the gender pay gap across various sectors, types of employment, and intersectional identities such as Indigeneity, race, ethnicity, newcomer status, disability, sexual orientation, and gender identity.

In 2023, the gender pay gap in BC was significant, with women earning 17% less than men on average based on median hourly wages. The gap widens for Indigenous, racialized, and newcomer women. For every dollar earned by a man in 2023:

• Racialized women earned a median of 76 cents
• Indigenous women earned a median of 80 cents
• Newcomer women earned a median of 81 cents

For More Information

For more details about the pay transparency tool visit here.