2026
Pay Transparency Reports now Required for Employers with 50 or More Employees
Most employers with 50 or more employees in British Columbia are now required to have completed and published a pay transparency report in accordance with the Pay Transparency Act and Pay Transparency Regulations by November 1, 2026.
The Pay Transparency Act was enacted in 2023 to help address the gender pay gap by prohibiting B.C. employers from asking job applicants about their pay history at previous employers and from retaliating against employees who discuss their pay with their employer or colleagues. The Act also requires employers to include a pay range in all public job postings, and, for provincially regulated employers above a certain size, requires they post an annual pay transparency report by November 1 of each year.
A pay transparency report publicly shows the gender pay gap within an organization in a given fiscal year. The report outlines the differences in mean and median pay between men, women, non-binary individuals, and those who are unknown or would prefer not to say, within a particular organization. Employers must make reasonable efforts in making the report to collect and handle gender information from employees in an inclusive, safe, and respectful way. Employers must also report payroll data on employee hours worked, salary, overtime pay, and bonus pay to calculate the pay gap at their organization between men and others. That data must then be posted on a publicly accessible website or in a visible place in the workplace, with the report to be made available upon request by anyone.
In 2025, approximately 700 employers (those with over 300 employees) were required to report on their gender pay gap. Now, with the new 2026 threshold, the reporting requirement will apply to approximately 8,500 employers who have 50 or more employees as of January 1, 2026. This includes full-time, part-time, seasonal, temporary and remote employees.
Many local governments make up part of those 8,500 employers and were required to complete and publish their reports by November 1. If you are a local government with 50 or more employees and you missed the November 1 deadline, it is not too late to create a pay transparency report. While there are presently no statutory penalties for failing to submit a report, it is still a statutory obligation. Furthermore, a pay transparency report is intended to help you as an employer understand the gender pay gap in your own workplace, to help current employees understand whether their work is being fairly compensated, and to help potential future hires make decisions about where they want to work. For local governments, a pay transparency report is also an important tool in being accountable to constituents.
Ramon Dabiryan & Carolyn MacEachern
Download pdf: Pay Transparency Reports now Required for Employers with 50 or More Employees