People Mentioned
Partner, Employment and Labour, Vancouver
To continue to attract top candidates, employers must be prepared to address whatever their pay transparency report reveals, says Katy Allen, partner, Employment and Labour, in an interview with HR Reporter.
On November 1, 2025, employers with 300 or more employees in British Columbia are required to prepare and post reports about their gender pay gaps. Employers will know if they have gaps by simply looking at their metrics. “Having a strong message around why that might be in that particular workplace, or what the employer is going to do about it, I think, will be key in ensuring that candidates are still coming to that company,” says Katy.
She says it will be difficult to track whether job candidates will be influenced by the publication of gender pay gaps on company sites. “But I do believe that — especially young people — will be interested in this sort of metric if they’re looking for a company with which to spend their career.
“I also expect that unions will be looking at these reports closely and thinking about how to utilize them either to organize workplaces or bring it up during collective bargaining.”
Currently the Pay Transparency Act does not provide for any penalties or enforcement measures for failure to report gender pay information. “In employment law litigation, I would expect that if there’s some sort of contravention of the Act, employee-side counsel will be using that to claim things like aggravated and/or punitive damages.
“So, for instance, if someone is dismissed in retaliation for raising a pay issue, the fact that that’s now offside will add to those sorts of claims.”
If you have a subscription to HR Reporter, you can read the full article by Sarah Dobson posted on October 6, 2025.
People Mentioned
Partner, Employment and Labour, Vancouver
