Guide to Understanding
the Pay Equity Act

Download: Guide to Understanding the Pay Equity Act

Disclaimer: This Guide gives an overview of the minimum requirements of the Pay Equity Act as interpreted by the Pay Equity Office. The interpretations are drawn from our own experiences and by applying the key rulings of the Pay Equity Hearings Tribunal and the courts and is current to the date of publication.

2.6 What is Pay Equity NOT about?

Evaluating individual employees or their performance on the job
Internal equity or fairness in pay among all job classes and individual employees
Comparisons between two different female job classes (for example, receptionist and secretary) or two different male job classes (for example, mechanic and welder)
Comparisons of female and male job classes between different employers
Setting wages according to market rates of pay
Women and men in male job classes or gender neutral job classes (these individuals have no entitlement under the Act)
“Equal pay for equal (same) work” which means that if a man and a woman are doing substantially the same work, for example, a sales job in a department store, they must receive the same pay. Equal pay for equal work falls under Ontario’s Employment Standards Act, 2000.