TORONTO — Ontario is accumulating feedback on rules to eliminate the gender salary gap, such as asking companies how hard pay transparency reporting would be. The Progressive Conservative authorities paused the implementation of the ultimate year of regulation from the previous Liberal sources that would require all publicly advertised job postings to consist of an income charge or variety, bar employers from asking about past compensation, limit reprisal in opposition to personnel who speak reimbursement, and require large employers to tune and document compensation gaps.
Based on the latest statistics from Statistics Canada, the gender salary hole accounting for the annual income of all workers is 29.3 cents; women earn about 71 cents for every greenback that men make. The gap for a yearly income of complete-yr, full-time people is 22.6 percent, as more ladies than guys are in element-time paintings. And while using hourly salary quotes, space is eleven — three in line with a cent.
Labour Minister Laurie Scott said the Liberals passed the law right earlier than the election with no consultations, and she told humans laid low with the law wanted an opportunity to be heard. “We’re dedicated to ultimate the gender wage gap,” she said in an interview. “I assume taking the time and paying attention to the various stakeholders approximately a way to do it nicely — and how to have, in some instances, thrilling ideas that we haven’t heard of on the way to address the gender salary hole — is treasured.”
Under the regulation, employers with a hundred or more employees might have to calculate their salary gaps and record those facts. The session questions ask how to calculate the salary cap, including whether bonuses, overtime pay, and commissions must be considered, the reporting intervals, and how much time and money it might take to fulfill reporting requirements. “If you’re an organization with a hundred or more employees, how many do you estimate the fee of pay transparency reporting maybe,” along with IT, software, and employees charges, the consultation paper asks.
“How many hours do you assume pay transparency reporting will absorb overall?”
NDP Leader Andrea Horwath stated she is insulted by the questions, and all ladies must be, too. “What the message is with that sort of a survey, and that form of a question, is that I wager this government believes that pay equity for women in purple tape and there’s no want to make sure that ladies have pay fairness,” she said. “If we’re ever going to get to an area where we’ve got pay fairness, we want to know the numbers.” Scott defended the questions, pronouncing she wished corporations with a purpose to record their salary hole numbers.
“I don’t need it to be hard, but we want as much participation as possible,” she stated. Ashley Challinor, the vice president of policy at the Ontario Chamber of Commerce, said the business enterprise acknowledges the gender wage gap as an assignment and calls ahead to give remarks. “Our challenge is that this law does not interact with the Pay Equity Act, the present rules that seek to address the pay hole,” she said in an assertion. “This is, regrettably, an example of layering on of law as opposed to modernizing and streamlining it — which negatively influences compliance and the effectiveness of the law.”
