7.5 Laws Relating to Pay
People cannot be discriminated against when it comes to the development of pay systems. One issue hotly debated is the issue of comparable worth. Comparable worth states that people should be given similar pay if they are performing the same type of job. Evidence over the years shows this isn’t the case, with women earning less than men in many industries. The average annual earnings for a woman 75 cents for every $1.00 a man earns (Pay Equity Office, 2023). Remember that gender is one of the protected categories in the Canadian Human Rights Act and thus gender should not be a factor in pay determination. Refer to Pay Equity in Chapter 3. When HR Managers are implementing the compensation package they need to ensure is compliant with all the legal requirements at the federal and provincial levels.
Pay Equity
Compensation must adhere to pay equity. Pay equity refers to equal pay for equal work when similar jobs are performed, and where men and women are completing the same work. Equal pay for work of equal value refers to jobs that are comparable in worth to the company, and the employees should be paid the same. Human Resources needs to ensure the company’s pay systems are aligned with the federal and provincial laws.
Employment Standards Acts
Each province and territory in Canada has legislation that must be abided by for all employees. The employment standards regulate employee rights and responsibilities of non-unionized employees, and employers. The legislation includes minimum wage, vacations, other leaves of absences, statutory holidays, the number of hours of work, overtime, and record keeping.
Unionized Workers and Labour Laws
Unions are regulated by federal and provincial legislation. They are registered with government labour boards. Unions have the power to negotiate with their employers, often for higher wages than competitors. Employers must abide by the union collective agreements that are negotiated with the unionized employees. The labour codes offer a guide for unions and employers to negotiate contracts, strikes and lockouts, health and safety, and labour standards. Some unions control jobs such as unionized carpenters which allows the union to raise rates of these specific jobs.
Leadership Competencies
- Collect comparative data on total rewards in place at competing organizations.
- Assign positions in the organization into the total rewards structure using an appropriate job evaluation system.
- Implement programs and initiatives relating to the organization’s rewards structure equitably within the organization.
- Ensure the rewards structure maintains its compliance with legal requirements.
Source: HRPA Professional Competency Framework (2014), pg. 17. © HRPA, all rights reserved.
“7.5 Laws Relating to Pay ” from Human Resources Management – 3rd Edition by Debra Patterson is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.
