Equal Pay For Part-time Employees

Ontario has introduced legislation that will require employers to pay the same wage to part-time employees who do the same job as full-time employees, as part of the government's plan for fair workplaces and better jobs across the province. Premier Kathleen Wynne was at Innovative Automation in Barrie today to talk about the Fair Workplaces, Better Jobs Act introduced yesterday. Under the Act, casual, part-time, temporary and seasonal employees would be entitled to be paid the same rate as full-time permanent employees when doing the same job. The proposed measures would also require equal pay for temporary help agency employees doing the same job as permanent employees at the company they are assigned to. Unemployment is at a 16-year low in Ontario, and the province's economy has outperformed all G7 countries in real GDP growth over the past three years. Yet the changing nature of work means jobs are less secure, benefits are not the same as they used to be and many employees are struggling to support their families and get ahead. About two-thirds of part-time employees in Ontario are women, so the legislation's equal pay for equal work provisions also support the government's efforts to close the gender wage gap.