The recent Pay Transparency Regulation, B.C. Reg. 225/2023 (the “Regulation”) sets out the information employers must include in their pay transparency reports (the “Reports”), the order of required information, and employers’ options with respect to the reporting period.

The Regulation also provides the gender categories that apply to the reporting requirements, directions with respect to grouping gender categories into “reference categories”, and the method of calculating the gender pay gaps.

As a reminder, the BC government and six largest Crown corporations will be required to produce their first annual pay transparency reports by November 1, 2023. For all other employers, the reporting deadline will be November 1, 2024, or later, depending on the number of employees (please see here for more information).

Gender Categories

The gender categories that apply in relation to reporting requirements are “Man” (for an employee who identifies as a man), “Woman” (for an employee who identifies as a woman), “non-binary” (for an employee who identifies as Non-binary) and “Unknown”. The category “Unknown” is designated for those employees who do not identify as Woman, Man or Non-binary, who do not wish to specify which gender category applies or about whom the reporting employer does not have the information.

Reference Categories

For the purposes of preparing a pay transparency report, the reference category is:

1. the gender category Man, if there are 10 or more employees in that gender category,
2. the gender category Unknown, if there are fewer than 10 employees in the gender category Man and 10 or more employees in the gender category Unknown, or
3. the gender category Non-binary, if

a. there are 10 or more employees in the gender category Non-binary, and
b. there are fewer than 10 employees in both the gender category Man and the gender category Unknown.

Time periods respecting the Reports

The Report must cover a 12-month period – either the most recently completed financial year of the reporting employer, or the calendar year immediately preceding the year in which the pay transparency report is prepared.

Information to be included in the Reports

Reporting employers are required to include the below information in their Reports. For ease of reference, the sections below are labelled Parts A through F.  

• Part A: The reporting employer’s name, mailing address, and the applicable North American Industry Classification System Canada 2022 sector code, the dates on which the reporting period began and ended, the number of employees of the reporting employer as of January 1 in the year the Report is prepared (expressed as 50 to 299 employees, 300 to 999 employees, or 1000 or more employees), as well as the applicable reference category.
• Part B: Information showing the following pay differences between employees in the applicable reference categories and other gender categories:
  
  
  • the mean hourly rate of pay of employees;
  • the median hourly rate of pay of employees;
  • the mean amount of overtime pay of employees;
  • the median amount of overtime pay of employees;
  • the mean number of overtime hours of employees; and
  • the median number of overtime hours of employees.

Hourly rate of pay for a reporting period is to be determined by dividing the total amount of ordinary pay received by the employee during the reporting period by the number of hours for which the employee received ordinary pay during that reporting period.

“Overtime pay” means money paid to an employee if (a) the money is for hours worked in excess of the employee’s usual hours of work, and (b) the money is based on a rate of pay that is at least 1.5 times the rate of pay applicable to the employee’s usual hours of work.

• Part C: The percentage of employees in each gender category who received overtime pay during the reporting period.
• Part D: Information showing the following pay differences between employees in the reference categories and gender categories: 
  
  
  • the mean amount of bonus pay of employees; and
  • the median amount of bonus pay of employees.

Bonus pay includes a holiday bonus, a year-end bonus, money that relates to profit-sharing, a bonus received by an employee in the form of securities, or money received by an employee as a commission.

• Part E: The percentage of employees in each gender category who received bonus pay during the reporting period.
• Part F: Information about the percentage of employees in specified segments.

Note that some information may not need to be included in the Reports if not applicable to the employer. For example, if there are fewer than 10 employees in a gender category, Parts B, C, and D are not applicable. If there is only one gender category in which there are 10 or more employees, Parts C and F are not applicable.

If you have any questions about this topic or any other questions relating to workplace law, please do not hesitate to contact a Mathews Dinsdale lawyer.