B.C.’s Pay Transparency Law Joins the Global Push for Disclosure

All employers with 300 or more employees in B.C. must publish their first pay transparency report by November 1, 2025, with the threshold dropping to 50 employees in 2026. That expansion will capture nearly two-thirds of the province’s workforce—and many multinational employers with Canadian operations will fall within its scope.

HR Policy Global’s Take: British Columbia’s 2025 reporting deadline is one more step in the broader global trend toward pay transparency. Global employers should consider aligning their data systems, job structures, and communication strategies now to ensure they can meet local rules while maintaining a consistent global narrative on pay equity and help engagement.

Key Findings from the 2024 Report

The province’s 2024 report revealed that women earn 17% less than men on average, one of the largest gaps in Canada. Pay gaps are even wider for racialized, Indigenous, newcomer, and disabled workers. While enforcement is still light, the government expects a surge of public reports in 2025—making transparency a reputational issue as much as a compliance one – a bigger risk for employers.

Reporting Requirements

• The reports must include hourly, overtime, and bonus pay gaps broken down by gender (men, women, and non-binary).
  
  
• There is no formal job classification requirement in the reporting template, but employers must show pay comparisons among “employees performing the same work or work of equal value.” Most large organizations will still need structured job-level data to produce meaningful results and defend any visible gaps.
  
  
• Salary ranges must be included in job postings, and employers may not ask pay-history questions or penalize employees who discuss compensation.

The Global Context

In Canada, Ontario will require pay-range postings and new disclosure rules starting 2026. In the EU, the Pay Transparency Directive takes effect in June 2026, mandating salary-range transparency and joint pay assessments where gaps exceed 5%. Japan, Australia, and Brazil have already introduced similar national reporting regimes, and several U.S. states—such as California, Colorado, New York, and Washington—now require pay ranges in job ads.