The Pay Equity Act

The Law

The Pay Equity Act, R.S.O. 1990, c.P.7, as amended, is available on the Province of Ontario's E-Laws website (www.e-laws.gov.on.ca).

Note To Users

The Pay Equity Act and the Proxy Sections

The E-laws version of the Act does not contain Part III.2 or other sections of the Act describing the proxy method of comparison.

In 1996 the Legislature repealed the proxy provisions of the Act (S.O. 1996, c.1, schedule J, s.1.). The Service Employees International Union challenged the repeal before the Ontario Divisional Court on the basis that it contravened sections 15 and 28 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The Court agreed with the Union and ruled that the repeal was unconstitutional and of no force and effect. (SEIU, Local 201 v. Ontario (Attorney-General) (1997), 35 O.R. (3d) 508).

However, while the Court's ruling restored the proxy provisions to full effect, the Legislature has not amended the Act to reintroduce the repealed sections into the statute.

The missing provisions of the Pay Equity Act, which the Pay Equity Office (PEO) is required to enforce, are reproduced on the Pay Equity Hearings Tribunal (PEHT) website. The proxy provisions can be found at: http://www.olrb.gov.on.ca/pec/peht/rules/peht_proxy.html

Warning: This reproduction is provided for your assistance and convenience only. Please refer to the Pay Equity Amendment Act, 1993 (S.O. 1993, c.4) which remains the official version.

PEO Order Summaries

From time to time, Pay Equity Office will post anonymized summaries of orders issued by Review Officers to illustrate some aspect of pay equity. An "anonymized" order is an order from which information has been removed to protect the privacy of the individuals. The summaries are not considered law.