By Gord Brandt, Senior Consultant
Interviewing for a new position in today’s job market is often complicated and stressful. Adding to that stress is the inevitable question regarding salary and compensation; candidates would like to know what a job pays, while the interviewer looks to understand the candidate’s compensation expectations.
This can lead to an uncomfortable discussion during the interview process, a situation that has been the case for many years and has resulted in much debate.
Understandably, it can be frustrating for both candidate and employer to spend time during the interview process only to discover that there is a big disparity in pay expectations on either side.
The good news is that this is about to change for participants in the job market in Ontario. The pay transparency movement, as it is aptly named, is already taking hold in the United States and Europe and is now emerging in Canada.
In fact, pay transparency laws are sweeping the world one country at a time and over a dozen states in the US are proposing some type of pay transparency laws.
Ontario is set to join the movement and will become the third Canadian province to implement a pay transparency law, joining Prince Edward Island and British Columbia.
In November 2023, the Ontario government announced that it expects to table pay transparency legislation. If this new Bill is passed into law, the legislation will require employers to include in any publicly advertised job posting the expected compensation or the range of expected compensation for the position.
That said, we are still a while away from any specific law being enacted in Ontario as there will be the usual consultation period before any new law is finalized.
It is interesting to note that this is not the first time the Ontario government has tabled pay transparency legislation. In 2018, the then-Liberal government passed the Pay Transparency Act, but it was not proclaimed into force, as later that same year the newly elected Ford government shelved it.
In an international survey conducted last year, 45 percent of employers reported that they included a pay range in job postings, but 18 percent specified that they only did so when required by law.
The takeaway from that survey is that most organizations do not appear to be ready for pay transparency laws, but arguably adopting greater pay transparency is becoming a best practice, regardless of the law.
Currently in Ontario, in advance of new provincial legislation, more job postings already include salary ranges, notably for the first time in the private sector.
This has already been the case in the broader public sector for many years and has highlighted the positive effects of pay transparency for candidates in the job market, by creating more informed salary discussions during the interview process.
This will no doubt be welcome news as candidates navigate the job market.