Pay Equity

• Author: Paul Wearing
• Profession: BA (Hons), MPA, LLB. Barrister & Solicitor
• Pages: 87-91

• 87

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Pay Equity

What You Should Know

Pay equity is equal pay for work of equal or comparable value. It is not

about evaluating individual employees or their job performance. An as-

sessment of pay equity is achieved through gender-neutral job evaluation.

This unique law, the Ontario Pay Equity Act,1 was enacted in 1988 to

address gender inequality in compensation. Th e purpose of the law is

to take armative action to redress gender discrimination in the com-

pensation of Ontario employees in female job classes. The law sets out

a detailed procedure for comparing the work of female-dominated job

classes with the work of male-dominated job classes.

Private sector employers with ten or more employees are subject to this

law. All public sector employers regardless of the size of their workforce

must comply with the law, and this includes organizations subject to gov-

ernment licensing such as daycare, nursing home, and long-term care

businesses, to name a few.

The law does not def‌ine “employee,” but the Ontario Pay Equity

Hearings Tribunal has interpreted the term broadly applying common law

tests when employers argue that persons are independent contractors,

not “employees,” and thereby excluded from consideration in the iden-

tif‌ication of job classes for the comparison of work in the job evaluation

process. The tribunal applies the common law “organizational test” and

looks at whether the work performed by the person is integral to the