The work of the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) Pay Equity Committee (PEC) is progressing well and should meet the August 2026 deadline.
As a reminder, the objective of the Pay Equity Act (2018) is to end gender-based pay discrimination and ensure that people in predominantly female jobs receive equal pay for work of equal value. The Act therefore aims to ensure that all jobs of equal value are paid equally, regardless of gender.
To achieve this ambitious project, the ARC's CES is responsible for developing the pay equity plan. Several long and crucial steps must be completed before the pay equity plan can be published and, if necessary, wage compensation can be paid.
One of the first steps is to create a job evaluation tool. This tool, which is about 30 pages long, is the single grid used by the committee to evaluate all job classes and assign them a numerical value.
Since this tool must be able to evaluate all job classes, without bias toward predominantly female jobs, ranging from managers to unionized and non-unionized employees, the consultation and testing work is lengthy and complex.
This is therefore the foundation on which the pay equity plan will be built, as it will enable an objective comparison of salaries in predominantly female jobs with those in predominantly male jobs, in order to determine whether pay gaps persist. This step was completed in June 2025.
In parallel with this work, the committee created job classes: that is, it grouped equivalent jobs – taking into account salary, education and skills required, as well as tasks and responsibilities – into a single job class, for which the committee chose a reference job that will be evaluated to represent all jobs in its class.
Using this tool, KPMG – the consultant hired to support the committee's work – was able to evaluate jobs that are predominantly male or female and assign them a numerical value. The committee then verified these evaluations to ensure that they were consistent and compliant with the tool.
The committee is in the process of finalising the hourly compensation for all these jobs,
taking into account all the components of remuneration, in addition to salary, such as benefits and bonuses that are not available for all jobs.
The next steps include:
- Selecting the best method for determining whether wage discrimination exists and, if so, for remedying it.
- Finalising the pay equity plan.
- Publishing the plan for a period of 60 days in order to receive comments and questions from those affected by it.
The ARC's ESC is dedicated to this important task of furthering gender equality.
Members who have questions or comments are invited to contact the ARC.
Thank you,
The AFS Pay Equity Team