Canada's experience with pay equity: national and provincial.

• Author: Gleason, Nancy

Concerns that the wage-setting practices of the federal government of the United States may be resulting in pay discrimination for women and minorities prompted the Congress to determine how possible pay disparities could be eliminated. Thus the Congress requested that the U.S. General Accounting Office (GAO) undertake a major study of public-sector activities related to equal pay for work of comparable value.

In a report released in November 1993, the GAO reviews the pay-equity initiatives of Canada and their results to date. Canada has legislated a pay-equity system for federal employers. In addition, the provincial government of Ontario passed pay-equity legislation applying not only to public-sector employers but also to most employers in the private sector.

The Canadian Human Rights Act (CHRA), passed in 1977, and the Ontario Pay Equity Act (OPEA), passed 10 years later, require that employers provide equal pay for men and women serving in comparable positions. In both cases, a comparable position is determined by assigning the job a "value." Employers use the same set of factors-skill, effort, responsibility and working conditions-to determine the job's value.

Although specific elements of the two acts are different, the basic structure of enforcement is the same. Complaints of pay inequity coming from employees or from the federal/provincial labour department are directed to a CHRA- or OPEA-established commission. The agency accepts and investigates pay-equity complaints, as well as provides public education. When a settlement cannot be negotiated by the commission between the complainant and the employer, the commission directs the complaint to a tribunal, which essentially acts as arbiter.

At the National Level

Section 11 of the 1977 Canadian Human Rights Act prohibits employers in the federal sector from establishing or maintaining differences in wages between men and women who are doing work of comparable value. Section 11 covers approximately 5,500 employers with approximately 1.1 million employees (9.4 percent of the Canadian workforce). As indicated in Exhibit 1, most of the employees covered are with the Canadian public sector or work for federally regulated employers (45 percent and 44 percent, respectively). The remainder are employees of crown corporations.

Exhibit 1 EMPLOYEES COVERED BY PAY-EQUITY LEGISLATION IN CANADA AND ONTARIO Canadian Human Rights Act Employees of the Canadian public sector 512,000 Employees of...