Throughout the year we have been blogging on the progress of Bill 203, Ontario’s Pay Transparency Act, 2018 (the Act).  Check out our posts discussing the Act here and here. As of our last post in May 2018, this Act was set to come into force on January 1, 2019. Well, in the spirit of keeping things interesting, the Ford government has decided that that is not to be.

Bill 57

Bill 57, a Ford government initiative titled the Restoring Trust, Transparency and Accountability Act, 2018 received Royal Assent in the legislature of Ontario on December 6, 2018. One aspect of this omnibus bill was delaying the commencement of the Act from January 1, 2019, to “a day to be named by proclamation of the Lieutenant Governor.” So basically for an unknown amount of time and possibly indefinitely.

The Pay Transparency Act, 2018 would have done the following:

• Required publicly advertised job postings to include a salary range;
• Prohibited employers from asking candidates about their past compensation;
• Prohibited reprisals against employees who discuss or disclose compensation; and
• Established a reporting framework that would have required employers with 100 or more employees to track, report and post-compensation gaps based on gender and other diversity characteristics.

Bill 57 will also make other changes that will affect workplaces, including more oversight of public sector union bargaining and public sector executive compensation, a review of the WSIB, various pension law changes,  changes to OHIP drug coverage for children and an increase in the employer health tax relief limit.

Bill 47

The Ford government’s Bill 47, the Making Ontario Open for Business Act, 2018 also did away with some of the Bill 148 changes to increase pay transparency. Bill 47 will repeal the Equal Pay for Equal Work provision of the Employment Standards Act, 2000 related to equal pay for workers of different employment statutes, as well as the provision requiring the employer to respond in writing when an employee makes an inquiry about their rate of pay.

If you have questions about Bill 57, pay transparency, Bill 47 or anything related to employment standards in Ontario get in touch! We are here to help.