An update from the Government of Canada's Core Public Administration Pay Equity Committee.

The pay equity committee (PEC) for the Government of Canada’s Core Public Administration (CPA), representing approximately 270,000 employees in over 70 departments and agencies, is working to achieve pay equity for jobs commonly held by women. The goal is to eliminate gender-based pay discrimination and ensure equal pay for work of equal value.

The PEC, which is comprised of representatives from the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat (TBS), on behalf of Treasury Board as the Employer, 17 bargaining agents, and non-unionized employees, continues to move forward steadily with the important work of developing a pay equity plan for the CPA.

The PEC has made notable progress since last year’s update. In the first step of the pay equity plan process, over 630 job classes were identified. The committee is now nearing completion for the second step, which involves determining the gender predominance of all job classes, as required by the Pay Equity Act. This step is essential for evaluating whether female-predominant job classes receive lower pay than male-predominant job classes that provide work of equal value to the Employer.

Additionally, the committee has started work on the third step, where the value of work is determined for female-predominant and male-predominant job classes. A third-party service provider, Ernst & Young, has been identified to support the PEC in determining the value of the work using a gender-neutral job evaluation tool currently under development. It is designed to assess the skills, effort, responsibilities and working conditions found in the work.

The PEC is committed to advancing this important project to uphold the right to equal pay for work of equal value for female-predominant jobs within the CPA. The committee will continue to provide updates as they move towards the development of the final pay equity plan.