British Columbia Offers Guidance on Pay Transparency

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British Columbia’s Bill 13, Pay Transparency Act was granted Royal Assent on May 11, 2023. This Act mandates that “reporting employers” must prepare and publish a pay transparency report by November 1 each year. Employers with a public website must post the report online; those without must display it prominently in the workplace and provide copies to the public upon request.

The Act phases in its requirements based on the employer’s size:

  • November 1, 2023: Applies to specific government entities like British Columbia Hydro and the Workers’ Compensation Board.
  • November 1, 2024: Extends to employers with 1,000 or more employees.
  • November 1, 2025: Covers employers with 300 or more employees.
  • November 1, 2026: Applies to employers with 50 or more employees.
  • Post-2026: Targets employers with more than 49 employees or any prescribed number.

This phased approach ensures that larger organizations are the first to comply, followed by progressively smaller employers in subsequent years.

The regulation outlines the specific information that must be included in a pay transparency report:

  1. Employer Details: The report must include the employer’s name, mailing address, and the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code applicable to the majority of the employees.
  2. Reporting Period: The report must specify the dates for the 12-month reporting period, which should align with either the most recent financial year or the previous calendar year.
  3. Employee Count: The report must indicate the number of employees as of January 1st of the reporting year, within specified ranges: 50-299, 300-999, or 1,000 or more employees.
  4. Overtime and Bonus Pay: The report must include the percentage of employees in each gender category who received overtime or bonus pay, except where there are fewer than 10 employees in a gender category.
  5. Pay Discrepancies: The report should detail the differences in mean and median hourly pay, overtime pay, and bonus pay between the reference category and other gender categories, unless there are fewer than 10 employees in a category or only one category has 10 or more employees.
  6. Pay Distribution: Employers must rank employees by hourly pay from lowest to highest, divide them into four segments of equal size, and specify the percentage of employees in each gender category within each segment, except where there are fewer than 10 employees in a category or only one category has 10 or more employees.

The regulation also provides guidance on how to calculate and report differences in hourly rate, overtime, and bonus pay.

Reference Date is November 20, 2023. [Open Source]