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BC Pay Transparency: What employers must do by Nov. 1, 2025 (and how to do it fast)

  • jrezvani
  • Sep 25
  • 3 min read
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If you have a large workforce in British Columbia, the Pay Transparency Act is about to move from “nice to know” to “publish or be noticed.” Here’s what’s changing, what your report needs to include and how to get it out the door without chaos.


Who Must Report in 2025 (and the Rollout After)

By November 1, 2025, BC-provincially regulated employers with 300+ employees in BC (and all Crown corporations) must publish an annual Pay Transparency Report and repeat every November 1st. The phased schedule hit 1,000+ employers in 2024 and extends to 50+ employers by November 1, 2026.



The Rule Already in Force: Pay in Job Postings

Since November 1, 2023, all BC job postings must display a specific wage or salary (or range). The Act also restricts pay-history questions and protects employees from reprisals for discussing pay. Refresh your templates if they still just say “competitive” in the salary range.



What Your Report Must Include

BC provides a clear recipe and even a free tool. Your report needs:


  • Organization details (name, mailing address, NAICS), reporting period and BC headcount.

  • Pay-gap analyses comparing women, men, non-binary and unknown/prefer not to say categories.

  • Calculations for mean/median hourly pay, overtime, bonuses and pay-quartile representation.

  • Public access: post online (or make available at the workplace if you don’t have a site).



A Note on the Reporting Period

Use a 12-month period (e.g., your most recent financial year before November 1, or the previous calendar year) and be consistent year-to-year. The government guidance and tool walk through this choice.



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How to Prepare in 2–3 Hours (First Pass)


  1. Pull the data: From your payroll/HRIS, extract base pay, hours, overtime and bonuses for BC-only employees and confirm headcount. The government Pay Transparency Reporting Tool can ingest and format this for you.


  2. Set up gender fields properly: Collect gender voluntarily using BC’s Gender & Sex Data Standard (women, men, non-binary, unknown/prefer not to say). Where groups are very small, the guidance suppresses results to protect privacy.


  3. Administrative details: Confirm your NAICS code, lock the reporting period, generate the draft and publish it to a publicly accessible page.



Privacy & Small Numbers

If any gender category has fewer than 10 individuals, results should be suppressed to preserve privacy (the government's tool does this automatically). Keep a short methodology note for auditors and for year-over-year consistency.



Pitfalls We’re Seeing (and Quick Fixes)

  • “Competitive” postings: Non-compliant. Replace with a specific rate or range in every posting template.

  • National data dumped into BC reports: Scope must be BC employees only. Use separate extracts for accuracy.

  • One-and-done surveys: The law expects reasonable efforts to collect gender info (first report, onboarding and at least annually provide the option to update). Build this into your HRIS workflow.



Why This Matters (Beyond Compliance)

The report will live in public. Treat Year 1 as a baseline and publish a 6 - 12 month remediation plan: tidy pay bands, remove “Canadian experience” screens that can bias outcomes and run quarterly checks on compression/inversion. This is where credibility and attraction/retention gains show up.



Final Thought

The BC Pay Transparency Act is more than a compliance requirement. Done well, your first report can set a benchmark for pay equity and show employees and candidates that you take fairness seriously. Treat it as a chance to improve, not just a box to check.


Need help preparing your first Pay Transparency Report or aligning your HR practices with the new requirements? Contact us to get expert support.

 
 
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