Bill 3 explained in plain English
Pay Transparency Act, 2018
Ontario legislature bill summary, status, timeline, sponsor, votes, and official sources.
At a glance
Official Legislative Assembly of Ontario snapshot for 41st Parliament, 3rd Session. Representative vote breakdowns appear when the Assembly publishes an Ayes and Nays page for the bill.
Our plain-language take, written for civic education.
Source: By PoliticalData.ca
The Pay Transparency Act, 2018, enhances workplace equity in Ontario by mandating pay-related disclosures, prohibiting salary history inquiries, and protecting employees from retaliation for seeking pay information.
The Pay Transparency Act, 2018, aims to promote gender equality and equal opportunity in Ontario's workplaces by increasing transparency around pay and workforce composition. It requires employers to provide information about expected compensation in job postings, and for larger employers (100+ employees), to prepare and report on pay equity. The Act also prohibits employers from asking job applicants about their past salary history and includes anti-reprisal provisions to protect employees who inquire about or disclose their compensation. Compliance officers are empowered to audit employers and issue notices of contravention for violations, with penalties determined by regulations. The Ontario Labour Relations Board handles disputes regarding these notices.
- Establishes requirements for employers regarding the disclosure of compensation and workforce composition information.
- Prohibits employers from asking job applicants about their previous compensation.
- Requires employers to include compensation ranges in publicly advertised job postings.
- Mandates that employers with 100 or more employees prepare and submit pay transparency reports.
- Prohibits employers from retaliating against employees who inquire about or disclose their compensation.
- Establishes a system for compliance officers to enforce the Act and issue notices of contravention.
- Outlines procedures for disputing notices of contravention before the Ontario Labour Relations Board.
- Amends the Police Services Act, 2018, regarding the handling of complaints by police officers related to pay transparency.
- Employers in Ontario
- Employees in Ontario
- Job applicants in Ontario
- Compliance officers appointed under the Act
- The Ontario Labour Relations Board
- The Minister of Labour
- Police officers (in relation to specific complaint procedures)
- Employers must not seek compensation history information from applicants.
- Employers must include compensation ranges in job postings.
- Employers with 100 or more employees must prepare and submit pay transparency reports.
- Employees have the right to inquire about their compensation and disclose it without reprisal.
- Employees have the right to ask employers to comply with the Act.
- Compliance officers have the power to conduct audits and issue notices of contravention.
- Individuals who receive a notice of contravention have the right to dispute it before the Ontario Labour Relations Board.
- The Act generally comes into force on January 1, 2019.
- Section 21 comes into force on the day section 212 of Schedule 1 to the Safer Ontario Act, 2018 comes into force.
- Employers with 250 or more employees must submit their first pay transparency report by May 15, 2020.
- Employers with 100 to 249 employees must submit their first pay transparency report by May 15, 2021.
- Penalties for contraventions are to be determined in accordance with regulations and paid to the Minister of Finance.
- Compliance officers may issue a notice of contravention for violations of the Act or regulations.
- Penalties for contraventions are set by regulations.
- Failure to comply with a notice of contravention can result in it being deemed a contravention.
- Notices of contravention can be filed in court and enforced like a judgment.
- The Ministry may publish names and details of persons deemed to have contravened the Act.
- Penalties may differ for individuals and corporations, as prescribed by regulations.
- The specific details regarding "prescribed employers," "prescribed information," and "prescribed characteristics" for pay transparency reports are not detailed in the bill and will be defined in regulations.
- The specific amounts or ranges of penalties for contraventions are not detailed in the bill and will be determined by regulations.
- The exact requirements for compliance audits and inspections are to be set out in regulations.
This is the main act established by the bill, outlining requirements for pay transparency.
Source: Section 23
Changes how complaints from police officers about alleged contraventions of pay transparency provisions are handled.
Source: Section 21
Generated using AI from official bill text. Not legal advice. It is written by PoliticalData.ca for civic education, automatically checked and spot-reviewed before publishing.
Official textProcess Snapshot
Vote Summary
This bill does not have a published recorded division in the current official sources, so representative-by-representative vote counts are not shown.
No published representative vote breakdown
The current official sources do not publish a recorded division breakdown for this bill, so there is no representative-by-representative table to show.
Official sources
Status, sponsor, votes, and timeline on this page are drawn from these official legislative sources and public records. Each summary above is attributed to its own source.
How this data is sourced