Key takeaways
- Pay transparency is already mandatory in several provinces. British Columbia, Prince Edward Island and Ontario require salary disclosure in job postings.
- Quebec has not yet legislated on pay transparency. It does have a Pay Equity Act, but that is a separate obligation and should not be confused with transparency.
- Transparency does not mean revealing everything. It is about making pay scales and criteria clear, not publishing what each person earns by name.
- The Ordre des CRHA is urging Quebec employers to get started now, without waiting for a law.
Pay transparency is no longer a forward-thinking management idea. It is already the law in several Canadian provinces. Here is what the law already requires, where Quebec fits in, and why, at Agendrix, we think that is good news.
In Quebec, the proportion of non-unionized organizations with at least one pay transparency measure in place rose from 27.3% in 2023 to 30.7% in 2025, with no law forcing them to do so. (Ordre des CRHA, 2025)
The shift is underway, driven far more by what employees expect than by any legal requirement.
Pay transparency: what it is (and what it is not)
Pay transparency means making information about an organization’s compensation accessible, both to current employees and to candidates. In practice, it can take several forms: posting a salary range in a job ad, sharing the criteria that determine a salary, or publishing pay scales by role.
One important point: transparency does not mean revealing everything. It is not about publishing what each person earns by name. It is about making the rules clear.
Pay transparency or pay equity? Don’t mix them up
This is the most common mix-up, and it has real consequences. The two ideas are distinct:
- Pay equity aims to close pay gaps between predominantly female jobs and predominantly male jobs of equal value. In Quebec, it falls under the CNESST (Quebec’s labour standards body) and has been a legal requirement since the Pay Equity Act of 1996.
- Pay transparency is about the visibility of salary information (salary disclosure, communicating criteria, scales by role). That is the piece that is not yet mandatory in Quebec.
In other words: a Quebec business can be fully compliant on pay equity while staying completely opaque about its salaries. The two are not interchangeable.
Where does pay transparency law stand in Canada?
The national picture is uneven. Some provinces have rules fully in force, others have passed laws that have not yet been proclaimed, and several have nothing at all. Here is where things stand.
| Province | Status | What it requires |
|---|---|---|
| British Columbia | In force (law of May 11, 2023) | Salary disclosure in job postings since Nov. 2023, ban on asking for salary history, phased pay gap reporting (50+ employees from Nov. 2026) |
| Prince Edward Island | In force (since 2022) | Salary disclosure in public job postings (no employee threshold), ban on salary history |
| Ontario | In force (Jan. 1, 2026) | Salary disclosure (25+ employees), range capped at a $50,000 spread, disclosure of AI use in hiring, applicant follow-up within 45 days, postings kept for 3 years |
| Newfoundland and Labrador | Law passed (2022), transparency provisions not yet in force | Provisions adopted but not yet proclaimed; one to watch |
| Nova Scotia | Partial (Labour Standards Code) | Ban on asking for salary history and protection for pay discussions; no posting requirement. Broader bill at an early stage |
| Quebec | No transparency law | Pay equity obligation only (CNESST); transparency under study |
| Other provinces / territories | No transparency requirement for the private sector | Principle of equal pay, but no posting obligation |
Three points are worth highlighting.
First, British Columbia led the way with a phased approach. Salary disclosure and the ban on asking for salary history have been in force since November 2023, and the duty to report on pay gaps is being phased in: it will reach all employers with 50 or more staff by November 2026. The government already sees an effect: the gender pay gap in the province narrowed from 18.4% in 2022 to 14.5% in 2025.
Next, Ontario went the furthest in 2026. Since January 1, employers with 25 or more staff must include the salary or a range in every public job posting. The spread between the lowest and highest figure in that range cannot exceed $50,000. A posting can show “$60,000 to $100,000,” for example, but not “$60,000 to $200,000” (unless the role pays above $200,000). Ontario is also the first province to require employers to disclose any use of artificial intelligence in hiring.
Finally, several laws are on the books but not yet enforced. That is the case in Newfoundland and Labrador, where the transparency provisions of the 2022 law have not yet been proclaimed in force. The landscape keeps shifting.
So where does Quebec fit in?
Quebec does not yet have a pay transparency law, only the Pay Equity Act, which is a separate obligation.
Still, the pressure is building. In September 2025, the Ordre des CRHA urged both employers and the government to move toward more transparency without waiting for a law. The catch: it takes a solid pay structure to get there, a real challenge for SMBs with no in-house HR expertise. The timing makes that call hard to ignore: in 2024, women in Quebec still earned only about 91% of men’s hourly wage on average. Transparency is one of the tools for closing that gap.
The European directive: a signal that reaches beyond Europe
The trend is not just a Canadian one. In Europe, Directive 2023/970 requires member states to strengthen equal pay between women and men, notably through the disclosure of salary ranges and a requirement for companies to measure and explain their pay gaps. France, for one, is preparing legislation that will apply to companies with 50 or more employees.
What is happening in Europe and across several Canadian provinces tells the same story: salary disclosure is becoming the norm. For employers, the question is no longer whether to anticipate it, but how to approach it.
How we see pay transparency at Agendrix
At Agendrix, we have championed one simple idea for years:
Posting the salary should be the bare minimum. When you are proud of what you offer your people, you should have nothing to hide.
For us, transparency is not about revealing everything. It is about sharing what matters. In practice, that means communicating pay scales along with the roles, levels, requirements and descriptions, not what each person earns down to the dollar.
Why do we care? Because transparency solves more problems than it creates. It cuts uncertainty for current employees and candidates alike. It sends a clear message: you are an employer who owns their practices. And in a market where talent is scarce, that message is worth a lot.
How to get ready (the essentials)
Whether you are in Ontario (where it is already the law) or in any other province, getting ready comes down to a few key steps:
- Audit your pay. List salaries, bonuses and benefits role by role, and flag gaps for comparable work.
- Clarify your criteria. Spell out what justifies a salary level: experience, skills, responsibilities, performance.
- Build a clear pay grid and lean on tools that centralize your HR data to keep it up to date without spending hours on it. Time and attendance software that ties hours, rates and labour costs together makes gap analysis easier.
- Train your managers to explain the grid and answer questions.
These are just the broad strokes. For the details on best practices, degrees of transparency and examples by sector, check out our guide to pay transparency best practices.
Become a pay transparency leader
The exact date Quebec and other provinces will legislate is still uncertain. The direction is not in doubt: transparency is coming, here as elsewhere. The real question is no longer whether it will arrive, but whether your business will meet it with a clear pay grid in hand, or be left scrambling. Why not start by looking at your own gaps, today?
What is pay transparency?
Pay transparency means making information about an organization’s compensation accessible, both to employees and to candidates. It happens through posting salary ranges, communicating pay criteria and publishing scales by role. It is not about disclosing what each person earns by name, but about making the rules clear.
What is the difference between pay transparency and pay equity?
Pay equity aims to close pay gaps between predominantly female and predominantly male jobs of equal value; it has been mandatory in Quebec since 1996. Pay transparency is about the visibility of salary information (disclosure, criteria, scales). A business can be compliant on pay equity while staying opaque about its salaries.
Which Canadian provinces have a pay transparency law?
British Columbia, Prince Edward Island and Ontario require salary disclosure in job postings. Newfoundland and Labrador has passed a law whose transparency provisions are not yet in force, and Nova Scotia offers partial protections.
What does Ontario's pay transparency law require?
Since January 1, 2026, Ontario employers with 25 or more staff must include the salary or a range (with a spread of no more than $50,000) in their public postings, disclose any use of AI in hiring, respond to interviewed candidates within 45 days, and keep postings for 3 years.
Is pay transparency mandatory in Quebec?
No, not as of today. Quebec has a Pay Equity Act (overseen by the CNESST), but that is a separate obligation from transparency. No law currently requires Quebec employers to post salaries. The Ordre des CRHA does, however, encourage employers to adopt transparency voluntarily.
How do I get my business ready for pay transparency?
Start with a pay audit to spot gaps, clarify your salary criteria, build a clear grid and train your managers to explain it. Documenting your pay decisions makes everything that follows easier, whenever a legal requirement ends up applying to you.
