Federal Pay Equity Compliance: June 30, 2025 Deadline and Compliance Best Practices
June 19, 2025
| By
Alyssa Johnson
Pay Equity
|
Employment
Bottom Line
Most federally regulated employers with 10 or more employees have another pay equity deadline approaching on June 30, 2025. By that date, they are required to file their first annual statement. In our earlier Insight, we discussed the requirements under the Federal Pay Equity Act (the “Act”) to develop and post a Pay Equity Plan by September 3, 2024.
However, the Act also imposes ongoing obligations for employers to ensure that they are working towards achieving and maintaining pay equity in the workplace, in accordance with their legal obligations. Employers should begin to compile the necessary information to ensure they meet this deadline, and may want to take the opportunity to more broadly consider whether their pay equity plans need reviewing due to changes in the workplace.
Obligations under the Act
The Act establishes a robust framework for federally regulated employers to provide equal pay for work of equal value, particularly addressing gender-based wage disparities. Employers must not only develop and implement Pay Equity Plans, which are highly regulated under the Act and its Regulations, but also meet ongoing compliance obligations. These include filing annual statements each year by June 30 detailing the employer’s progress, and conducting a comprehensive pay equity assessment to prepare a new Pay Equity Plan once every five (5) years.
If your company has not yet developed its first Pay Equity Plan, now is the time to do so to minimize the potentially costly consequences of non-compliance.
Submitting the Annual Statement
Once a federally regulated employer has posted its pay equity plan, it is required to file an annual statement with the Office of the Pay Equity Commissioner, to demonstrate continued compliance with the Act. The annual statement must be submitted by June 30 in the year following the initial deadline that applies to the organization. For most employers, the first statement is due by June 30, 2025.
The annual statement must contain the following information:
- Employer Information: the name of the employer (as well as its legal name, if different); the date on which the employer became subject to the Act; the employer’s business number under the Income Tax Act, if applicable; and the name, phone number, and email of a senior official of the employer to whom the Pay Equity Commission may direct questions.
- Employee Information: the number of employees employed on the last day of the previous calendar year (i.e. December 31, 2024).
- Pay Equity Plan Information: whether the most recent Pay Equity Plan was developed with or without a Pay Equity Committee; the date of the most recent Pay Equity Plan(s); how the value of the work of each predominantly female and predominantly male job class was determined; and a variety of information regarding the predominantly female job classes for which pay equity increases are required.
The Annual Statement can be submitted directly through the Office of the Pay Equity Commission’s Annual Statement Portal.
Unlike preparing the Pay Equity Plan, employers are not required to share the annual statement with other workplace parties (such as employees or unions) prior to its submission.
Changes in the Workplace and Pay Equity Assessments
While the Act only requires a complete re-assessment of pay equity compliance once every five years, it may be in an employer’s best interests to review their pay equity progress more frequently.
Changes in the following factors (and possibly others) will be considered in a pay equity reassessment and may require a further adjustment in compensation:
- Changes to the compensation structure (including wages, vacation payments, bonuses, or other allowances) of a job class;
- Changes to the duties and responsibilities of a job class;
- The creation or elimination of a job class, in particular, a male comparator job class; and
- Changes in the gender dominance of a job class.
These changes may affect the gaps in pay between male and female job classes, or impact the determination of what constitutes a job class. When new positions are created, they will need to be evaluated and pay equity compliant. These, in turn, may affect the pay equity adjustments that employers have to make, requiring these changes to be implemented as of the date the change occurred.
If employers only conduct a pay equity analysis once every five years, these payments will need to be made retroactively to the date the changes occurred. Employers may instead want to factor in a pay equity analysis when updating compensation-related policies and practices, adding new jobs, or changing job responsibilities.
A more frequent analysis not only avoids the time-consuming, extensive review at the end of the five year period, but allows the employer to immediately implement any pay equity adjustments found to be owing from the change, reducing or eliminating the amount of retroactive liability that may be found once the five-year analysis is completed.
Takeaway
Federally regulated employers should begin preparing their annual statement to ensure filing by the June 30, 2025 deadline.
Employers may also want to review more broadly any changes in their workplace which have impacted pay equity, such as changes in compensation, changes to duties and responsibilities of a job, creation or elimination of a job class, or changes in gender predominance, to determine and implement revised pay equity adjustments.
Filion has a team of lawyers with the necessary knowledge and experience to assist clients with meeting the requirements of the Federal Pay Equity Act, including:
- Assisting in the preparation of annual statements;
- Responding to questions from employees or unions;
- Advising and addressing changes in the workplace and their impact on pay equity; and
- Litigating pay equity disputes.
With our extensive experience acting for both provincially and federally regulated employers, we can assist with strategic advice throughout the entire pay equity process.
Need More Information?
For more information or assistance with preparing your annual statement, or federal or provincial pay equity compliance more generally, contact Alyssa Johnson at ajohnson@filion.on.ca, one of our pay equity team leads, Carol Nielsen at cnielsen@filion.on.ca and Melanie McNaught at mmcnaught@filion.on.ca, or your regular lawyer at the firm.
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