2020 Pay Equity Maintenance
The University is currently completing the 2020 Pay Equity Maintenance. The timing reflects an extension granted by the CNESST in 2020 in connection with the 2010 and 2015 pay equity maintenances.
Pay Equity at McGill
McGill completed its initial pay equity exercise in 2001. Following an investigation by the Québec Pay Equity Commission, an agreement was reached with certain unions (AMURE and AMUSE) in 2013 and implemented in 2014 and 2015.
In 2009, the Pay Equity Act was amended to require employers to assess the maintenance of pay equity every five years. Following implementation of the 2013 agreement, McGill completed its 2010 pay equity maintenance, posted in 2016, and its 2015 pay equity maintenance, posted in 2017.
McGill has one pay equity program that includes all eligible job classes across the University from Secretary to Cook to IT Analyst to Professor. Pay equity is assessed within McGill only and it compares predominantly female job classes to predominantly male job classes across the University. Developments affecting one pay equity maintenance may have implications for subsequent maintenances and, therefore, for employees across the University.
What is Pay Equity?
Pay equity is equal pay for work of equal value. Workers who perform different but equivalent work in predominantly female job classes should have access to an equal opportunity of pay to those who hold positions in predominantly male job classes within the same organization.
To determine whether wage gaps exist, an employer must evaluate job classes with a method that recognizes so‑called female traits that are often overlooked in wage determination and that allows for the elimination of gender‑based systemic discrimination.
For further information on the Pay Equity Act, please watch the video Pay Equity - Recognizing the Fair Value of Women's Work (1min 47s) , published by the Commission des normes, de l’équité, de la santé et de la sécurité du travail (CNESST).
Purpose of the Pay Equity Act
The purpose of Quebec’s Pay Equity Act is to correct differences in compensation due to the systemic gender discrimination towards persons who occupy positions in predominantly female job classes within an organization.
Employer obligations
The employer must periodically conduct a pay equity audit, to verify whether events that have occurred in the organization since its last pay equity audit have created or recreated wage gaps between female predominant job classes and male predominant job classes. If this is the case, the employer must correct these wage gaps. These pay equity audits must take place every five years.
Since 2019, because the pay equity audit is conducted by the employer, a participation process must also be established. This consultative process provides employees affected by the audit with an opportunity to ask questions, submit observations, and share information about events that may have occurred since the last pay equity audit and that may have affected the job classes covered by the pay equity program.
Pay equity audit process
The following table shows the main steps of the pay equity audit process.
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Step 1 |
Identification of job classes and determination of their gender predominance |
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Step 2 |
Selection of the job evaluation method and review of job class evaluations |
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Step 3 |
Identification of events that occurred during the pay equity audit period concerning the job classes covered by this pay equity plan |
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Step 4 |
Estimation of wage gaps at the identified events and, if applicable, calculation of salary adjustments |
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Step 5 |
Posting of pay equity audit results (60 days after the end of the participation process) |
