PSAC pays tribute to Dr. Beth Bilson, a leading legal scholar and chair of the federal Pay Equity Task Force, whose work helped build a system that puts the responsibility on employers and governments to take action to close pay gaps. PSAC continues to demand this approach in its pay equity work, making sure employers take responsibility instead of leaving workers to fight discrimination on their own. 

Dr. Bilson’s work has helped improve the lives of women and gender‑diverse workers, especially those who face multiple forms of discrimination. It will continue to guide human rights advocates fighting for this important feminist cause for years to come.  

Pay equity and the proactive system  

Pay equity means equal pay for work of equal value. It is about comparing different jobs and making sure that if they contribute equal value to an employer’s operations, the workers receive the same pay, even if they are traditionally done by different genders. Under Canada’s Human Rights Act in 1977, pay equity was recognized as a right, but workers had to file complaints to enforce it, which made reaching gender pay equity very difficult. 

In a complaint‑based system, workers or unions must file complaints after discrimination has already happened, and then wait years for investigations, hearings and appeals. PSAC spent decades fighting many pay equity cases in court. In 1999, we won a major victory resulting in retroactive pay and interest payouts to more than 230,000 current and former PSAC members totaling $3.6 billion. In the years to follow, more related cases in other agencies were settled. These hard‑fought victories showed how unfair and slow the complaint‑based model was, and why a different approach was needed. 

The Pay Equity Task Force 

In 2001, the federal government created the Pay Equity Task Force, led by Dr. Bilson, which recommended proactive pay equity laws that require employers to work with unions, review pay, find gender‑based gaps, and fix them. These laws also set rules, monitoring requirements, and penalties. They mandated employers to keep pay equity plans up to date instead of waiting for complaints. Unfortunately, the federal government did not fulfill Dr. Bilson’s recommendation for proactive pay equity until 2021.   

While the federal jurisdiction and provinces like Ontario and Quebec have proactive pay equity for their public and private sectors, serious gaps remain in other provinces and territories    where proactive obligations to protect all workers from pay discrimination does not exist or are limited. 

Until this is changed, PSAC will continue to push for stronger laws, better funding and faster action to close gender‑based pay gaps. Our members will continue following in Dr. Bilson’s footsteps to carry her work forward in every pay equity committee, every pay equity case and through our campaigns until pay equity is a reality in every workplace across the country.