Introducing the Pay Equity Solution for Small Business Do-It-Yourself Toolkit, created by Ontario’s Pay Equity Office. This toolkit will help you analyze your compensation practices and support your business while also complying with the law. The pay equity toolkit guides you through seven steps to complete a pay equity analysis.​

​​​​The ent​​ire toolkit consists of: ​​​

  • The Toolkit (pdf) ​​
  • Explainer videos accompanying each step of the toolkit 
  • Explanatory infographics ​
  • FAQ’s 
DOWNLOAD THE PAY EQUITY TOOLKIT 

Notes for users:

1. ​Downloading the Toolkit 

​​If your device has defaults set to open PDF files in a web browser, you may encounter an error message indicating Adobe Reader 8 is required. Before downloading newer versions of Adobe, try right-clicking the toolkit in your downloads folder and selecting “open with” your existing Adobe program.

2. ​Disclaimer

The toolkit and supporting resources are for information only and are intended to assist employers in complying with the Pay Equity Act​. It is not to be construed or considered as legal advice, nor warranted to be complete and accurate and may be amended without notice. It does not restrict Review Officers of the Pay Equity Office in their interpretation and determination of matters under the Act. ​

3. Share Your Feedback

​​The toolkit is currently in beta testing and available for use. We would appreciate your feedback during this process to improve the final toolkit. We are asking users to complete a short survey (less than 2 minutes) here . You are also welcome to email your questions or suggestions to AskPayEquity@ontario.ca.​

Explainer Videos

Welcome to the first video guiding users through the Pay EquitySolution for Small Business toolkit.

In this video, we will go over Step 1 of the toolkit to demonstrate how to identify and group positions in your company into “job classes”. To help us better understand how to identify all job classes, we’re going to follow Upcycled Fashion, a small clothing store company in the city of Waterloo, Ontario, as they go through a pay equity analysis.

In this video, we will go over Step 2 of the toolkit to demonstrate how to determine the gender predominance of each job class. This video will help you start by identifying which classes in your company are male-dominated, female-dominated, or are genuinely already gender-neutral.
Step 2 of the toolkit identifies there are three clear criteria to consider when determining gender predominance: current incumbency, historical incumbency, and stereotype.

In this video, we will go over Step 3 of the toolkit to demonstrate how to evaluate job classes to give them point values.
This video will walk you through quantifying the value each position brings to your company by scoring the job classes against a consistent and fair set of factors.

In this video, we will go over Step 4 of the toolkit to demonstrate how to determine the job rate for each job class, including all forms of compensation, such as salary or wages, health insurance, commissions, bonuses, tips, etc.

In this video, we will briefly explain the difference between two comparison methods, one called “job-to-job” and the other called “proportional value”.
The toolkit recommends that you try doing a job-to-job comparison first and then switch to the proportional value method if you are not able to find a job-to-job comparator for all your female job classes.

In this video, we will explain the job-to-job comparison method in more detail, including a demonstration of how banding works.
“Banding” is a technique that can be used in the job-to-job method that helps users decide in an unbiased way whether the point values of two job classes are similar enough to be compared.
Although banding is not a legal requirement, this is just one of the several techniques the toolkit uses to reduce the risk that unconscious bias perpetuates pay inequity.

In this video, we will explain the proportional value comparison method.
With the proportional value method, we look at multiple male job classes together to determine if our female job classes are paid equitably.
The toolkit does the calculation for you. All you have to do is select the male job classes you will be using.
In this video, we will go over Step 6 of the toolkit to demonstrate how to calculate adjustment payments if pay equity gaps are found.
The toolkit will guide you through calculating any adjustment payments for the female job classes that were found to be paid inequitably in Step 5.

In this video, we will review the direction in Step 7 of the toolkit to ensure you maintain pay equity in your establishment(s) and keep good records.
We understand you are busy managing your business, but taking the time to implement and maintain pay equity will benefit your company in the long run.
Not only will you have fulfilled your responsibilities under the Pay Equity Act, you’re also doing your part to close the gender wage gap and to make yourself an attractive and competitive employer-of-choice.

Graphics

Links in the image:

  • Gender Neutral Language for Job Ads
  • Glossary of Active Verbs used in Writing or Amending Job Descriptions
  • Commonly Overlooked Features of Work
  • Guide to Collecting Job Inofrmation
  • Gender Bias Decoder

FAQs

Although the videos are designed to correspond with each Step of the Toolkit, you can watch the videos in any order you wish.

The length of time will depend on the number of job positions you start with, and the number of job classes (i.e. clusters of jobs) you finish with. Once you have downloaded the toolkit, you can work on it, pause and save your work, and then return to continue working on it later – you don’t need to start and finish it in just one session.

We recommend that you first check with your own IT support to rule out any local issues. If you are certain that there is a bug in the pdf file, please let us know via AskPayEquity@ontario.ca​.

No. This toolkit is being offered as a free service to employers. Although you do not need to report the results to the Pay Equity Office, we encourage you to save all pay equity related records to demonstrate compliance with the Act.

No. The Pay Equity Office only opens an investigation file if a formal complaint is filed or if the Office is conducting a targeted proactive compliance campaign. The Pay Equity Office only tracks the number of times the toolkit has been downloaded (for public reporting purposes) and does not track who downloads the toolkit.​

DOWNLOAD THE PAY EQUITY TOOLKIT