December 31, 2015 constitutes a deadline for the audit of maintenance of pay equity obligations for businesses that carried out a pay equity exercise during 2010. According to data published by the Commission de l’équité salariale, more than 30,000 Quebec businesses are affected by this date.
The audit and maintenance of pay equity aims to ensure that within a business, female-dominated job categories always receive remuneration that is at least equal to that of male-dominated categories of equivalent value, notwithstanding the various events which may have occurred over time and that are likely to trigger or retrigger wage gaps (e.g. creation or elimination of job categories).
The Pay Equity Act does not impose specific measures for completing an audit of the maintenance of pay equity. The employer may elect to adopt a different process than that used during the initial pay equity audit or at the time of the most recent audit of maintenance, where applicable.
In any event, employers have to audit the identification of job categories and their gender predominance to ensure that all job categories prepared are assessed with a uniform assessment method and compared with the same method of valuation of wage discrepancies, post results of works in a prominent location that is easily accessible and safeguard relevant information for a period of 5 years.
The employer may choose to carry out the assessment and maintenance alone or jointly with a pay equity committee or certified association where wage earners represented by the latter are governed by a separate program.
If you are unsure about your obligations regarding the maintenance of pay equity within your business, we invite you to contact us.
