Report highlights work to promote Pay Equity Act compliance, such as streamlined dispute resolution
Lori Straznicky, Canada’s pay equity commissioner, has published her 2025–26 annual report, which sought to spotlight efforts over this past year to increase awareness of and encourage compliance with employers’ obligations under the federal Pay Equity Act, 2018.
In the report tabled in Parliament, Straznicky explained that these measures aimed to:
- Improve internal processes
- Streamline dispute resolution
- Clarify adjudicative pathways
- Update and expand guidance tools
- Make the online portal more functional
Straznicky said other recent initiatives included workshops, refreshed online learning resources, targeted outreach efforts, collaboration with provincial partners, and engagement with over 360 stakeholders.
“Over the past year, we listened carefully to employers, workers and stakeholders,” Straznicky said. “We heard concerns about lengthy processing times and the complexity of new obligations. We also heard a need for more practical guidance and further clarity in our decision-making process.”
About Pay Equity Act
Under the Pay Equity Act, federally regulated employers are responsible for examining compensation practices, finding inequities, and taking corrective action.
According to Straznicky, the federal legislation confirms that “wage equality is not optional, it is an obligation grounded in human rights and economic fairness.”
Context for 2025–26
In her message in the annual report, Straznicky noted the economic pressures and rising cost of living that Canadians faced this past year.
Straznicky acknowledged women’s substantial contributions across all economic sectors. She then emphasized the barriers many women continue to encounter in terms of pay equity, housing stability, economic security, and opportunities.
“These challenges are even more pronounced for Indigenous, Black, and other racialized women, women with disabilities, older women and trans women,” Straznicky said.
The report cited Statistics Canada’s quality of employment data, which demonstrated improvements from 2006–24.
For instance, the data over this period showed that women’s average hourly wages rose more swiftly, with a 21.3 percent increase, than men’s, which went up by 15.9 percent.
Apart from the slowly closing gap between men and women, the data also revealed that the wage gap differed significantly depending on age.
However, the report stressed the need for more work to continue reducing the gap between men and women and ultimately close it fully.
“As Canada charts the course ahead, we must ensure that human rights are at the centre – including the fundamental human right for women in all their diversity to equal pay for work of equal value,” Straznicky said. “Canada is stronger when every person has a chance to thrive and to fully participate in our society and economy, without barriers.”
