
Publication
Essential Corporate News – Week ending 11 July 2025
On 1 July 2025, the Quoted Companies Alliance (QCA) published three new board committee guides to accompany the QCA Environmental and Social Guide published in December 2024.
Canada | Publication | March 2019
The Pay Transparency Act, 2018 (the Act) received royal assent in 2018 and is expected to come into force in Ontario before the end of 2019. The intention behind the Act is to eliminate the gender wage gap through increased transparency of pay and workforce composition.
The Act aims to bridge the gender wage gap by requiring employers to exercise transparency in compensation history and compensation range information, prohibiting reprisal against employees with respect to pay transparency and requiring the development of annual pay transparency reports for employers with 100+ employees.
In particular, employers should be prepared for the upcoming deadlines to submit their first pay transparency reports (ss. 7(2) & (3)):
However, the details for pay transparency reporting have yet to be hashed out. In developing the Act’s regulations, the Ministry of Labour recently published a proposal for the pay transparency reporting requirements in order to seek public feedback by April 5, 2019. The proposal provides employers a glimpse on what to expect:
a. Gender wage gap (%) = (men’s pay – women’s pay)/men’s pay x100
b. Median hourly wage gap reflects the mid-point value if all employees’ hourly wages are arranged in order from lowest to highest. To find the median hourly wage, an employer would first calculate the median hourly wage of both genders and then the gap between the two.
c. Average hourly wage gap reflects the average wage employees make per hour. To find the average hourly wage, an employer would first calculate the average hourly wage of both genders and then the gap between the two.
a. Lower Quartile (bottom 25% of earners);
b. Lower Middle Quartile;
c. Upper Middle Quartile; and
d. Upper Quarter (top 25% of earners).
The proposal emphasized that the reports would be made available publicly and comply with Ontario privacy laws. Specifically, it was noted that neither the legislation nor any future regulation would require employers to publicize the compensation information of individual employees. Rather, the aggregate data collected would be anonymized.
With the aim of fine-tuning the requirements, the Ministry of Labour put forth the following public consultation questions:
Wage Gap Calculations
Reporting Period
What reporting period would you prefer to use to calculate average and median hourly gender wage gaps (e.g., calendar year, a prescribed period such as a pay period or specific week [please specify the date/period], fiscal year, etc.)?
Implementation and Costs to Employers
a. IT/software costs
b. Personnel costs
c. Other (please describe)
d. Total costs
General Feedback
For more information, please visit the Ministry of Labour’s website.
Publication
On 1 July 2025, the Quoted Companies Alliance (QCA) published three new board committee guides to accompany the QCA Environmental and Social Guide published in December 2024.
Publication
In the two years since our last climate litigation update, the prevalence and variety of global climate litigation around the world has continued to increase.
Publication
Selon un rapport conjoint du Bureau du surintendant des institutions financières (BSIF) et de l’Agence de la consommation en matière financière du Canada (ACFC), environ 70 % des institutions financières fédérales prévoient utiliser l’IA d’ici 2026 .
Subscribe and stay up to date with the latest legal news, information and events . . .
© Norton Rose Fulbright LLP 2025