The B.C. government says its annual Pay Transparency report showed progress in the gender pay gap in 2025.
The gender pay gap between men and women in B.C. has decreased to 14.5 per cent in 2025, compared to the 18.4 per cent in 2022, the report released Monday (June 1) found. However, that still means that women are making 85 cents on average for every dollar men earned.
The first report was released in 2024.
The measures in the report are mandated under the Pay Transparency Act, which became law in 2023.
Under that, B.C. employers were tasked with the following requirements to help address the gender pay gap by: including the expected pay or pay range in all public job postings; not asking job applicants about what they have been paid by other employers; and fostering open discussions about compensation without reprisal from the employer.
It’s meant to support more informed career decisions for job seekers. The Finance Ministry says that increased transparency is associated with improved earnings and economic security for women, which can support higher levels of household spending and broader economic growth.
While the average was 85 cents, women aged 55 and older earned 83 cents for every dollar men in the same age group made. The report found that was up from 78 cents in 2017. Indigenous women also earned 83 cents for every dollar earned by non-Indigenous men, which was also an improvement of two percentage points.
Racialized women earned 74 cents for every dollar earned by non-racialized men, but that’s despite racialized women having higher levels of education. It was still an improvement of two percentage points from the previous year.
Recent newcomer women, who have been in Canada five years or less, earned just 69 cents for every dollar earned by Canadian-born men. The report says that pay gap increased by four percentage points.
The latest report focused on three of the largest sectors in B.C.: professional, scientific and technical services; retail trade; and construction. Those three sectors employ nearly 30 per cent of the workforce.
In professional, scientific and technical services, the gender pay gap improved by five percentage points from 2024 to 2025. However, it remained higher than the provincial average at 18 per cent.
Retail showed a lower overall gender pay gap at nine per cent, but the ministry said women remained under-represented in higher-paid middle management roles.
In construction, women earned 10 per cent less than men, which was a four-percentage-point improvement from 2024. The ministry added that women continued to be under-represented in the sector.
Three sectors showed higher-than-average improvement, with the pay gap for agriculture, fishing and hunting decreasing by 12 percentage points. It was followed by administrative and support in waste management and remediation services at 11 percentage points and mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction decreasing by 10 percentage points.
The ministry says that about 700 employers with 300 or more employees were required to prepare and post pay transparency reports by November 2025. About 64 per cent of those employers met the requirement.
In fall 2026, the reporting requirement will apply to employers with 50 or more employees. That’s about 8,500 employers.