A significant new reporting requirement is about to affect thousands of BC businesses.

Beginning November 1, 2026, employers with 50 or more employees in BC will be required to prepare an annual Pay Transparency Report and make it publicly available.

The requirement has previously applied to larger employers (300+ employees) and crown corporations, but this year’s expansion will bring many more small and mid-sized businesses into the reporting system.

For Langley businesses approaching or exceeding the 50-employee threshold, the Chamber is encouraging employers to start preparing now.  As the employee count includes part-time, remote and seasonal workers, this regulation will capture many small and medium businesses. 

While the Chamber supports gender equity and several other provisions of the Act, we believe extending this reporting requirement to small and mid-sized businesses is unnecessarily burdensome and unlikely to produce meaningful data or measurable outcomes. With roughly one in three large employers and Crown corporations still not compliant despite having one to two years to prepare, there are clear signs the reporting framework is already too onerous even for organizations with far greater administrative capacity.

Who Needs to Report?

The threshold is based on the number of employees working in BC as of January 1, 2026.

Employers should count full-time and part-time employees, remote employees based in BC, and seasonal employees who were employed on that date.

If your organization had 50 or more BC employees on January 1, your first report must be prepared by November 1 and then posted on a publicly accessible website as soon as practicable.

Employers without a public website must make the report available in their workplaces and to members of the public upon request.

What Is Involved?

Preparing the report requires more than simply publishing salary ranges.

Employers must make reasonable efforts to collect gender information from employees and provide employees with an opportunity to provide or update that information each year. Employees are not required to disclose their gender.

Employers must also gather payroll information used to calculate prescribed measures including differences in hourly pay, overtime and bonus compensation between gender categories.

The Province has created an online Pay Transparency Reporting Tool to help employers generate the report. Employers choosing to use the tool will need a Business BCeID and will need to prepare the required employee information for upload.

What Employers Should Do Now

With the November 1 deadline approaching, affected employers should begin preparing now:

• Confirm whether you had 50 or more employees working in BC as of January 1, 2026, including full-time, part-time and remote employees based in BC, as well as seasonal employees who were employed on that date.
• If you plan to use the Province’s reporting tool, make sure you have a Business BCeID in place, as registration can take time.
• Begin collecting the required employee gender information and payroll data, including hours worked, ordinary pay, overtime and bonuses. Check what is available through your payroll service. 
• Use the provincial Pay Transparency Reporting Tool or another compliant method to prepare the report.
• Post the completed report on a publicly accessible website as soon as practicable after it is prepared.

Chamber Supports Pay Equity, But Opposes the 50-Employee Reporting Threshold

The Greater Langley Chamber supports gender equity and the principle of equal pay for equal work. We also support several of the measures introduced through the legislation.

Our concern is specifically with extending the annual reporting requirement to employers with as few as 50 employees.

At that size, many businesses do not have dedicated HR, payroll or data-management teams. Because the threshold is based on employee headcount rather than full-time equivalents, it can also capture relatively small businesses that rely heavily on part-time or seasonal employees.

Those employers may now need to collect additional employee information, adapt payroll or HR systems, complete prescribed calculations and publicly report the results each year.

The Chamber has raised these concerns directly with BC’s Gender Equity Office and senior provincial officials, including in a meeting directly with the Parliamentary Secretary responsible. We believe pay equity can and should be advanced without imposing a reporting process designed for large organizations on small and mid-sized employers with significantly fewer administrative resources.

With the requirement nevertheless scheduled to expand on November 1, we are encouraging affected businesses to understand the rules and begin preparing now.

Employers can review the Province’s Pay Transparency reporting guidance and access the online reporting tool through the Government of BC website.

Resources

General Info >  

Government Webinars on Using Reporting Tool > 

Government Guidance on Pay Transparency Reports  >
 

Have thoughts or questions on this?  Share them with the Chamber >