cover image: Re: Development of Pay Equity and Transparency Legislation 1

20.500.12592/r92qwz

Re: Development of Pay Equity and Transparency Legislation 1

1 Mar 2023

British Columbia needs an intersectional Pay Equity Act that enshrines in law the responsibility of all employers to identify and close gaps in pay for work of equal value. [...] Speaker, the fundamental question that I have to ask -- and I hope others in this debate might answer it -- is: what about the cost to women? They're the ones who've been bearing the brunt of this for decades. [...] As a province with obligations under the federal United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act and BC’s Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act, and numerous Reconciliation Agreements with Indigenous nations, the wage gap between Indigenous peoples and the rest of the population represents a disparity in Canada’s legislative intent and hollow reconciliatory words v. [...] The legislation must provide for the storage of pay data in a central repository that supports the analysis necessary for a future pay equity regime. [...] In signing this letter, each of us commits to building awareness among British Columbians of the history of pay equity in our province and of the aspirations of your predecessors that remain unrealized.

Authors

Kait Woodman

Pages
8
Published in
Canada