Moncton — The New Brunswick Coalition for Pay Equity celebrates the introduction of the Pay Transparency Act at the Legislative Assembly by the Minister responsible for Women’s and Gender Equality, Lyne Chantal Boudreau.
“This is a major step forward,” says Johanne Perron, Executive Director of the Coalition. “After years of work and mobilization, and with the government’s leadership, we are reaching an important milestone in advancing economic justice in New Brunswick.”
This legislation will help transform workplace culture by shedding light on inequities that may exist between people doing the same work in the same workplace, and by addressing discrimination affecting women, racialized, Black and Indigenous workers, as well as members of the 2SLGBTQIA+ community.
“You can’t fix what you don’t see. Pay transparency helps reveal inequities and opens the door to concrete solutions to address them,” added Perron.
Among the measures announced, the legislation will:
- Protect workers from reprisals for disclosing or discussing wages
- Require salary ranges to be included in job postings
- Prohibit employers from asking about salary history
- Require employers to produce anonymized pay reports
The Coalition notes that the details will matter. It will analyze the legislation closely and looks forward to the accompanying regulations, which will clarify employers’ reporting requirements.
However, the Coalition emphasizes that pay transparency legislation does not lessen the need for a proactive pay equity law in the private sector. On the contrary, pay transparency is an essential complement to achieving both pay parity and pay equity.
“Pay transparency reveals the gaps, and pay equity corrects them,” adds Perron. “These two laws go hand in hand.”
The Coalition expects that pay equity legislation for the private sector will be introduced before the end of the current government’s mandate, as promised in its platform.
For several years, the Coalition and its partners have led sustained efforts in research, advocacy, and mobilization to advance both pay transparency and pay equity in New Brunswick.
“This is the power of solidarity. This breakthrough belongs to everyone who stood up and broke the silence,” said Perron.
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The New Brunswick Coalition for Pay Equity is a group of individuals and organizations that pursues and ensures the realization of the right to pay equity and to just conditions of work for women. To that end, the Coalition engages in communication, education, research, advocacy for the adoption and implementation of adequate legislation, as well as public policy dialogue and development.
Pay equity is equal pay for work of equal value. To achieve pay equity, the value of female-dominated jobs must be compared to the value of male-dominated jobs.