The Nova Scotia Department of Labour and Advanced Education is
considering expanding the equal pay provisions of the Labour
Standards Code (the "Code"), and
its ability to enforce compliance with the Code through the
imposition of administrative penalties.
The Code currently has equal pay provisions that prohibit
employers from paying women differently from men for doing
substantially the same work. There are exceptions to this rule that
permit differences in pay if they are based on objective criteria,
such as a seniority system, a merit system, a system that measures
wages by quantity or quality, or any other factor other than sex
(section 57 of the Code). The Department of Labour generally learns
of violations of this rule through employee complaints, and it
reports that it receives very few of these complaints. Under the
Code, the Department of Labour has no authority to impose fines on
employers for non-compliance.
