4th Session, 42nd Legislature
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Bill 222
THE PAY TRANSPARENCY ACT
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(Assented to )
WHEREAS it is important to promote gender equality and equal opportunity in employment and the workplace;
AND WHEREAS disclosing inequities related to employment and pay that Manitobans may experience in the workplace will promote equality;
AND WHEREAS the elimination of gender, racial, cultural and ethnic identity and other biases in hiring, promotion, employment status and pay practices is necessary for employment equity;
AND WHEREAS supporting transparency on issues concerning employment, pay and equal opportunity will benefit all Manitobans;
THEREFORE HER MAJESTY, by and with the advice and consent of the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba, enacts as follows:
INTERPRETATION AND APPLICATION
The following definitions apply in this Act.
"employee" means an employee as defined in The Employment Standards Code. (« employé »)
"employer" means an employer as defined in The Employment Standards Code. (« employeur »)
"minister" means the minister appointed by the Lieutenant Governor in Council to administer this Act. (« ministre »)
"pay" means all compensation and benefits paid or provided to an employee by an employer for labour performed or services provided, including salary, commission or other compensation, whether measured by time, piece or otherwise, and vacation allowance. (« rémunération »)
"pay audit report" means the report required under section 6 on gender, diversity and pay of employees. (« rapport de vérification en matière de rémunération »)
"Pay Equity Commissioner" means the person designated as the Pay Equity Commissioner under The Pay Equity Act. (« commissaire à l'égalité des salaires »)
"prescribed" means prescribed by regulation. (Version anglaise seulement)
"private sector employer" means an employer whose labour relations are within the exclusive jurisdiction of the Legislature to regulate other than a public sector employer. (« employeur du secteur privé »)
"public project" means a public work as defined in The Public Works Act or any other prescribed project. (« projet public »)
"public sector employer" means an employer that is a public sector entity. (« employeur du secteur public »)
"public sector entity" means any of the following:
(a) the government;
(b) a Crown corporation to which The Crown Corporations Governance and Accountability Act applies;
(c) the following health organizations:
(i) a regional health authority as defined in The Regional Health Authorities Act,
(ii) Shared Health Inc.,
(iii) each employer listed in the Health Sector Bargaining Unit Review Regulation, Manitoba Regulation 7/2019;
(d) The University of Manitoba, The University of Winnipeg, Brandon University, Université de Saint-Boniface, University College of the North, Red River College, Assiniboine Community College and Manitoba Institute of Trades and Technology;
(e) a school district or school division as defined in The Public Schools Act;
(f) every other reporting organization as defined in The Financial Administration Act;
(g) any other prescribed employer in the public sector or any employer that belongs to a prescribed class of such employers. (« entité du secteur public »)
"publicly advertised job posting" means an external job posting for a specific position that an employer advertises to the public in any manner, but does not include recruitment campaigns or general help wanted signs. (« annonce publique de poste »)
"regulation" means a regulation made under this Act. (« règlement »)
"tender" means a public invitation issued to solicit bids for a project. (« appel d'offres »)
Reference to "Act" includes regulations
A reference to "this Act" includes the regulations.
This Act applies to every private sector employer and public sector employer and their employees.
Nothing in this Act limits the obligations of employers or other persons under The Employment Standards Code or the rights of employees under The Employment Standards Code or The Human Rights Code.
EMPLOYEE PAY
In this section, "applicant" means an individual who applies for employment but does not include an existing employee of the employer.
Unless the pay history of an applicant is publicly available, an employer must not seek the pay history of the applicant by any means.
An applicant may voluntarily disclose their pay history to an employer without prompting.
An employer may seek information about the range of pay for a comparable position from other employers or publicly available sources.
An employer may consider or rely on pay information obtained in compliance with this section in determining pay for an applicant.
An employer who advertises a publicly advertised job posting must include information about the expected pay or range of pay for the position.
PAY AUDIT REPORTS
A private sector employer with 100 or more current employees and any other prescribed employer must conduct a gender and diversity pay audit for each fiscal year of the employer.
The employer must file the report on the audit with the Pay Equity Commissioner within six months after the employer's fiscal year end.
The report must be in a format acceptable to the Pay Equity Commissioner and include the following:
(a) the employer's total number of current employees and their positions;
(b) the pay for each employee by position;
(c) each employee's self-identified gender identity if voluntarily disclosed by the employee;
(d) each employee's self-identified racial, cultural or ethnic identity if voluntarily disclosed by the employee;
(e) any difference in pay for employees related to
(i) gender, racial, cultural or ethnic identity or any other characteristics set out in subsection 9(2) of The Human Rights Code, or
(ii) any other prescribed characteristics;
(f) any other prescribed information.
Reports must be non-identifying
An employer must include only non-identifying information about employees in the report.
An employer who is required to prepare a pay audit report under section 6 must publish it on a website available to employees or have a physical copy of the report available to employees in each workplace.
If an employee is unable to access the report under subsection (1), an employer must provide a copy of the report to an employee, without charge, upon request.
The Pay Equity Commissioner must make pay audit reports filed under section 6 publicly available and publish them on a government website.
PUBLIC TENDERS
The following definitions apply in this section.
"compliant bid" means a bid made by a person who has met all conditions imposed in the request for tenders. (« soumission conforme »)
"purchase of goods" means a purchase of goods under the authority of The Government Purchases Act. (« achat de biens »)
The conditions of a compliant bid for a tender issued by a public sector entity for a public project or purchase of goods must include a requirement that the successful bidder provide evidence that it pays women, gender-diverse individuals and men equally.
The information provided to satisfy the conditions imposed on a tender must be acceptable to the public sector entity.
To determine whether the information provided to satisfy the conditions imposed on a tender is acceptable, the public sector entity may rely on the bidder's latest pay audit report, any other public information and any prescribed criteria.
ENFORCEMENT
An employer must not intimidate, dismiss or otherwise penalize an employee or threaten to do so because the employee has
(a) inquired with the employer about the employee's pay;
(b) disclosed the employee's pay to another employee;
(c) inquired about a pay audit report or information contained in a pay audit report;
(d) given information about the employer's compliance with this Act to the government or any other person; or
(e) asked the employer to comply with this Act.
An employer must not reduce the wages of any employee to
(a) implement pay equity under this Act or any other enactment; or
(b) create the appearance of pay equity in a pay audit report.
A person who contravenes this Act is guilty of an offence and is liable on conviction
(a) for a first offence,
(i) in the case of an individual, to a fine of not more than $1,000, and
(ii) in the case of a corporation, to a fine of not more than $15,000; and
(b) for a second or subsequent offence,
(i) in the case of an individual, to a fine of not more than $5,000, and
(ii) in the case of a corporation, to a fine of not more than $25,000.
Corporate officers and directors
If a corporation commits an offence under this Act, any officer, director, employee or agent of the corporation who directed, authorized, permitted, acquiesced in or participated in the commission of the offence is also guilty of an offence and is liable on conviction to the punishment provided for the offence, whether or not the corporation has been prosecuted or convicted.
GENERAL
This Act binds the Crown.
The Lieutenant Governor in Council may make regulations
(a) governing pay audit reports, including the collection, use, disclosure, storage and reporting of information contained in the reports;
(b) prescribing anything referred to in this Act as prescribed;
(c) respecting any matter necessary or advisable to carry out the purposes of this Act.
TRANSITIONAL PROVISIONS AND CONSEQUENTIAL AMENDMENTS
Sections 4 and 5 do not apply to a publicly advertised job posting made before the coming into force of this Act.
Section 9 does not apply to any tender issued before the coming into force of this Act.
Subsection 82(1) of The Employment Standards Code is replaced with the following:
Discrimination in wage scales prohibited
An employer must not discriminate by paying different wages to, or imposing different wage scales on, female, gender-diverse and male employees if the kind, quality and quantity of work of the employees is the same or substantially the same.
Subsection 12(2) of The Pay Equity Act is amended
(a) in the part before clause (a), by adding "and The Pay Transparency Act" after "The Public Service Act"; and
(b) by striking out "and" at the end of clause (a), adding "and" at the end of clause (b) and adding the following after clause (b):
(c) oversee the implementation of The Pay Transparency Act within the public sector.
C.C.S.M. REFERENCE AND COMING INTO FORCE
This Act may be referred to as chapter P14 of the Continuing Consolidation of the Statutes of Manitoba.
This Act comes into force on the day it receives royal assent.