Starting on Wednesday, future job postings in BC will need transparent wage or salary information from employers.
According to the province, the change is part of BC’s Pay Transparency Act, which requires employers to put in wage info on all publicly posted jobs starting November 1.
This means that employers can no longer ask about an employee’s pay history or punish them for telling other employees and potential job applicants about their pay.
The goal of this act is to ensure that analysis of the gender pay gap goes beyond the gender binary, making BC the first province to take this approach.
Parliamentary Secretary for Gender Equity Kelli Paddon says people deserve equal pay for equal work.
“Making sure transparent wage or salary information is included in all job posting helps make sure people are being offered the same pay for the same work,” said Paddon.
The change comes in response to the pay gap, with Statistics Canada saying that women are paid 17 percent less than men, despite improvements in recent years.
Last year saw men getting paid an average hourly wage of $35.50, while Indigenous women got $26.74 per hour, $27.44 per hour for women from visible minorities, and immigrant women received $28.87 per hour.
Along with transparent info, the province adds that employers will need to post reports of their gender pay gap, which will come in four phases, with the first starting also on November 1.
