“What you don’t know won’t hurt you.” When it comes to wages, nothing could be further from the truth. If you don’t know what others earn, you can’t tell if you’re being paid fairly, negotiate with confidence, or meaningfully challenge discrimination.
Silence only protects those who benefit from inequality.
Without transparency, it becomes easier, intentionally or not, to pay some workers less for the same work, or for work of equal value, and harder for anyone to identify or correct those disparities.
That’s why New Brunswick needs pay transparency legislation: a clear, enforceable right for workers to access reliable wage information and see for themselves whether they are paid equitably.
For years, the New Brunswick Coalition for Pay Equity has contributed to education and advocacy on pay transparency, including through our End the secrecy. Transparency! campaign. This sustained work has helped build the public and policy momentum that contributed to the government’s recent commitment, in its Throne Speech, to table pay transparency legislation. Now it’s time to move from secrecy to accountability.
A Flawed System
The call for pay transparency isn’t new. Back in 1984, Justice Rosalie Abella’s Royal Commission on Equality in Employment warned that systemic discrimination wouldn’t be solved through good intentions alone. And yet, the tools in place to date remain inadequate.
In New Brunswick, employers already have legal obligations to provide compensation free from discrimination under the Human Rights Act, the Employment Standards Act, and the Pay Equity Act, 2009. Without access to pay information, these rights are difficult to enforce, allowing systemic discrimination to persist even where legal protections exist.
For example, the right to equal pay for equal work has been protected under the provincial Human Rights Act since 1967. However, this right is complaint-based: workers must first realize they are being underpaid in order to file a complaint—an almost impossible task when workplaces discourage, or even prohibit, employees from knowing what their coworkers earn.
This is precisely where pay transparency matters. It does not create new rights; it helps enforce existing ones.
In other words, rights without transparency are hard to enforce, and fairness without information is impossible to guarantee.
The Case for Transparency
Research and consultations in New Brunswick with legal experts, unions, and community organizations show that practical, proven measures can reduce pay secrecy, drawing on models used in other provinces, in Europe, and beyond.
New Brunswick needs legislation that:
- Requires salary ranges in external or internal job postings, so applicants know what to expect before they apply.
- Prohibits questions about salary history, a practice that perpetuates past inequities by anchoring new offers to old, possibly discriminatory wages.
- Protects workers who talk about pay, ending gag orders and reprisals for discussing wages with colleagues.
- Guarantees employees access to anonymized pay data, enabling fair comparisons across job classes and genders.
- Requires employers to report key information, including job classifications, compensation details, and gender and equity groups breakdowns.
These aren’t radical or expensive measures. They are practical, long-overdue steps toward fairness, and we are far from alone in moving in this direction.
Growing Momentum
Across Canada and beyond, pay transparency has momentum. Provinces such as Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland and Labrador, British Columbia, Nova Scotia and Ontario have adopted legislation. At the federal level, Canada introduced pay transparency measures in 2021. The European Union and Australia have both taken proactive steps on pay transparency, with the EU’s Pay Transparency Directive set to take effect this year.
New Brunswick must build on that momentum by adopting its own pay transparency legislation — or risk falling behind.
More than Good Policy
Pay transparency benefits not only workers, but also employers and the economy. When pay practices are open and fair, trust grows between employers and employees, boosting morale, productivity, and retention. Transparency also helps businesses attract talent, especially among younger generations who expect fairness and openness at work.
Beyond workplace culture and economic benefits, transparency is also a powerful lever for equity. It makes it easier to identify and correct pay discrimination. Pay parity—equal pay for equal work—has technically been the law since the 1960s, yet some workplaces still fall short because of wage secrecy. And in the case of pay equity—equal pay for work of equal value—the challenge is even greater. Unlike pay parity, pay equity has not yet been legislated in the private sector. While the government has committed to doing so, meaningful progress remains difficult without clear, accessible pay information.
Pay parity and pay equity are not contingent on pay transparency alone, but transparency strengthens accountability and makes inequities harder to ignore. After all, it’s harder to fix what you can’t see.
Let’s Make it Law
Trading secrecy for transparency would help ensure every worker is paid fairly, close the gaps that harm marginalized communities, and level the playing field.
Let’s not wait another decade. Canada has committed to closing the gender wage gap by 2030 under the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, but we won’t get there with silence.
Because what you don’t know can hurt you.
End the secrecy. Transparency!
Raphaëlle Valay-Nadeau
Chair of the New Brunswick Coalition for Pay Equity