Summary#
The Pay Transparency Act is a proposed new New Brunswick law, not an amendment to an existing Act. Its stated goal is to reduce systemic wage differences and promote fairer pay practices; that goal is not a guaranteed result.
- Employers would have to include an expected wage or wage range in new public and internal job postings, and could not seek or rely on an applicant’s pay history, except when that history is publicly accessible.
- Employers with an average of at least 50 employees in a calendar year would have to prepare annual pay reports. They would have to make reasonable efforts to collect certain employee information, but employees’ disclosure of that information would be voluntary.
- Those employers would file reports with the Bureau under the Pay Equity Act, 2009, then publish them or make them available to employees and the public. The Bureau would publish aggregated information about pay differences among equity groups and other specified matters.
- Employers could not penalize workers for discussing pay or exercising rights under the Act, or make agreements that restrict pay discussions.
- The Minister could appoint inspectors. Inspectors could examine workplaces and records, issue notices and, if a problem is not fixed, make orders. Regulations would set administrative penalties; some violations could also be offences.
What it means for you#
- Employers: The job-posting and pay-history rules apply to employers covered by the Act. Employers with 50 or more employees on average would also have reporting and information-collection duties. The bill does not set out the report’s required data in detail; regulations would do that.
- Employees and job applicants: Employers could not ask for your pay history, or rely on it if you volunteer it, unless it is publicly accessible. Employees could discuss compensation without being punished for doing so. For information collected for reports, employers must tell employees in advance that disclosure is voluntary.
- Public and government employers: Reports would be public, and the Bureau would publish combined information from them. The first filing deadlines are March 31, 2028, for covered public-service employers, March 31, 2029, for employers with 100 or more employees, and March 31, 2030, for employers with 50 to 99. Each report covers the previous calendar year.
- Everyone: The bill does not itself set pay rates, guarantee equal pay, or create a process for employees to apply for a pay review or compensation adjustment. The supplied text is the first-reading version; no amendment material was provided to show later changes. The reporting and enforcement sections listed in the bill would start on dates set by proclamation, which are not specified.
Money#
No publicly available information on the bill’s overall cost is in the supplied material.
- The bill requires the Bureau to publish annual aggregated information and requires the Minister to review the Act every five years. It gives no cost estimate or staffing level.
- Employers would have to prepare, file, publish or otherwise provide reports, and retain them for at least five years. The bill gives no estimate of those costs.
- Regulations would set administrative penalty amounts and may set appeal fees. The bill does not specify the amounts.
What is unclear#
- Regulations would decide what employee information employers must seek, what reports must contain, how data is calculated, and how information is collected, kept and disclosed.
- The bill does not say how employers should calculate differences among equity groups or what happens if employees choose not to provide information.
- It does not set the administrative penalty amounts, offence categories, review and appeal procedures, or the body that would hear appeals; these details are left to regulations.
- The bill uses the term “compensation” broadly, but does not explain how particular pay components would be compared in reports.
- The bill refers to other New Brunswick laws but does not amend them. The materials do not establish how its rules would interact with existing requirements under those laws.
Case for#
- The bill appears intended to make pay practices more visible and give job applicants wage information before applying.
- A possible argument for collecting voluntary employee information is that reports could show pay differences among the groups named in the bill.
- Publishing employer reports and Bureau summaries could make pay practices easier for workers and the public to examine.
- Protecting pay discussions may help employees raise concerns without fear of workplace punishment.
Case against#
- Employers must report, but the bill leaves key requirements to future regulations. The scope and usefulness of reports therefore cannot be judged from this text alone.
- Reporting relies on employees voluntarily providing some information. If many do not, reports may give an incomplete picture; the bill does not explain how that would be handled.
- The bill creates inspection and enforcement powers, but penalty amounts and review and appeal procedures are not set out in the bill.
- Employers would face reporting and record-keeping duties, but the bill gives no estimate of their costs or of the public cost of administering and enforcing the law.