BC Pay Transparency Act – Plainly Speaking

On May 11, 2023 the Pay Transparency Act (“Act”) was passed, and it places new requirements on all employers. The full Act can be found at the Leg.BC.CA website but we’ve summarized the major points below.

• Created to promote pay equity and pay transparency.
• Publicly advertised jobs on or after November 1, 2023, are required to include the expected pay, or expected pay range. Jobs not posted publicly are not subject to this requirement.
• Employers are required to complete, report, and post Pay Transparency Reports by November 1
  • The effective year depends on size. Employers with 50 to 300 employees report in 2026.
  • Employers required to post their Pay Transparency Reports on their website, or make otherwise available to employees and the public.
  • Pay Transparency Report required content as well as the infrastructure for filing the reports is under development (as of the passing of the Act).
• Employers to collect gender information according to the new Gender and Sex Data Standard to complete the Pay Transparency Report
  • Employer to facilitate voluntarily updates to this information annually.
  • Employees can decline to provide gender information.
  • Employers must protect any personal information collected.
  • Employer must have/obtain consent to use or disclose personal information.
• Employers can no longer ask about an applicant’s pay history.
• Employees cannot suffer reprisals or retaliation if they ask, or share pay information.
• Employees may claim discrimination, under the BC Human Rights Code, if they feel they are being paid unfairly.
• The Ministry of Finance, starting in 2024, will publish annual reports on the gender pay gap by June 1.
• Questions can be directed to PayTransparency@gov.bc.ca