Status of Women committee  I am Lori Straznicky, also from DESD.

Finance committee  Thank you. Division 14 introduces new, proactive pay equity legislation. It repeals the Public Sector Equitable Compensation Act and it amends both the Canadian Human Rights Act and the Parliamentary Employment and Staff Relations Act. The legislation and proposed amendments are

Finance committee  Yes, that's correct.

Finance committee  I'll answer the first question first, and then we do have statistics that I believe are responsive to the second one. There is nothing in the legislation that would prohibit an employer from voluntarily undertaking a pay equity process and becoming pay equity compliant in the wo

Finance committee  No. If they were using the process to voluntarily bring their compensation practices to be providing equal pay for work of equal value, then the obligations under the act would not apply to them. They would still be exempted, or it wouldn't apply because they would be below the t

Finance committee  The way it would work is that when we're given the number of women in these workplaces, until the process has been undertaken to identify which of the female-predominant job classes would need to be compared with male-predominant job classes of the same value, we won't know how m

Finance committee  If their employer does not voluntarily undertake the process...?

Finance committee  That's right. The burden—

Finance committee  Yes.

Finance committee  If they have 12 people, yes, they would be covered as a small employer under the act.

Finance committee  That is a good question. Off the top of my head, I don't have an answer to give you. We'd be happy to come back with one.

Finance committee  Yes.

Finance committee  The 88.5¢ reflects the hourly wage gap, yes.

Finance committee  I can't say specifically what the comparisons would be, but on the hourly wage difference, yes, it's 88.5¢.

Finance committee  In terms of the gender wage gap in the public sector...?