Advocates Launch ‘Pay Transparency’ Campaign in New Brunswick

Campaign Launch Calls for Pay Transparency in New Brunswick

Proposed “pay transparency” legislation in New Brunswick would require employers to include salary ranges in job postings, protect workers’ rights to discuss their pay, ban questions about past salaries during hiring, and mandate that large companies report their pay gaps.

On Friday, the New Brunswick Coalition for Pay Equity launched its campaign in Moncton, urging the province to “end the secrecy.”

Coalition chair Raphaëlle Valay-Nadeau emphasized that pay transparency is closely tied to pay equity. “To know there’s a problem, we need to know what our salaries are,” she told the NB Media Co-op, adding that voluntary employer disclosures have proven ineffective.

The launch featured a keynote by Toronto-based lawyer Jan Borowy, co-chair of Ontario’s Equal Pay Coalition. She illustrated how pay equity works with a striking example: women, often employed in care-related roles such as childcare or long-term care, are frequently underpaid.

“For the childcare worker, in the City of Toronto’s municipal pay equity plan, the comparator was a zookeeper,” Borowy explained.
“The zookeeper was taking care of chimpanzees. The childcare worker was underpaid by more than $5 an hour to take care of children.”

The campaign builds on research conducted in collaboration with University of New Brunswick law professor Kerri Froc and draws from consultations with unions, community groups, legal experts, academics, and activists.

Women are disproportionately represented in lower-paid sectors, especially caregiving, compared to men. Racialized women often earn even less than white women, due in part to their overrepresentation in underpaid, non-unionized jobs with limited benefits and protections.

New Brunswick’s Pay Equity Act, enacted in 2010, only applies to the public sector. However, the provincial government under Premier Susan Holt has pledged to introduce private-sector pay equity legislation.

According to Statistics Canada data cited by the coalition, as of 2023, women in New Brunswick earned 92.65 cents for every dollar earned by men. In terms of median income, women earned just 80 percent of what men made in 2022—a difference of $8,600 annually.

In response to queries from the NB Media Co-op, the provincial government provided a written statement.

“Women’s Equality continues to advance efforts to close the gender wage gap in New Brunswick, including recent investments to support the work of the Pay Equity Bureau,” a spokesperson said. “We see pay transparency as a powerful tool to address pay inequities, and we are currently reviewing best practices and exploring policy options.”

“We commend the NB Coalition for Pay Equity for raising awareness and fostering important public dialogue on this issue. While there is no legislative update at this time, Women’s Equality remains committed to working with partners to support long-term, multi-faceted, evidence-based solutions to improve the gender wage gap.”

David Gordon Koch is a staff reporter with the NB Media Co-op. This reporting has been made possible in part by the Government of Canada, administered by the Canadian Association of Community Television Users and Stations (CACTUS).