Federally regulated employers will soon be prohibited from paying their employees different wage rates based on differences in employment status, beginning in or around spring 2026, pursuant to amendments to the Canada Labour Code (the "CLC"). Moreover, the federal government recently announced that it will also be enacting supporting regulations in or around spring 2026, including administrative monetary penalties for violating the new requirements.
These new requirements may have substantial financial consequences for employers in the federal sector that provide lower wage rates to part-time or temporary employees compared to full-time and permanent employees, as further discussed below. Notably, these new equal wage treatment requirements will also apply to temporary help agency employees assigned to perform work for federally regulated employers.
Background & Timeline for Coming into Force
According to the federal government, the new equal treatment and temporary help agency requirements under the CLC are designed to "ensure equal treatment for employees performing the same work, regardless of their employment status, and provide protection from unfair practices to temporary help agency employee"¦."
These amendments are being enacted via the Budget Implementation Act, 2018, No.2 (the "Act"), which received royal assent on December 13, 2018. Under the Act, these amendments will come into force on a day fixed by an order of the Governor in Council (i.e., an Order in Council).
However, it has been unclear when the amendments would come into effect for years, until the government announced in February 2025 that the amendments would come into effect sometime in 2026. At that time, the federal government also pre-published the Regulations Amending Certain Regulations Made Under the Canada Labour Code (Equal Treatment and Temporary Help Agencies) (the "Regulation"), which will amend the Canade Labour Standards Regulations and the Administrative Monetary Penalties (Canada Labour Code) Regulations under the CLC. The Regulations will support the new equal treatment and temporary help agency requirements.
More recently, in April 2026, the federal government announced in its "Labour Program Forward Regulatory Plan: 2026 to 2028" that the finalized Regulations will be published in "spring 2026". Given that the text of the proposed Regulations state that they will come into force on the same day as the amendments to the CLC under the Act, this strongly suggests that the Regulations and amendments to the CLC will both come into effect in or around spring 2026. In other words, it is likely that the new equal treatment and temporary help requirements under the CLC will come into effect in spring 2026.
New Equal Treatment and Temporary Help Agency Requirements
Once the Act comes into force, the CLC will be amended to enact the new equal treatment and temporary help agency requirements. The equal treatment requirements will be set out in new sections 182.1 to 182.4 of the CLC, and the new temporary help agency requirements will be set out in new sections 203.1 to 203.5 of the CLC.
Under the new section 182.1 of the CLC, federally regulated employers will be prohibited from paying an employee a rate of wages that is less than other employees due to their "employment statu" where: (i) they work in the same "industrial establishment"; (ii) they perform "substantially the same kind of work"; (iii) the performance of the work "requires substantially the same skill, effort and responsibility"; (iv) their work is performed under "similar working condition"; or (v) where certain other criteria prescribed by the Regulation apply. These additional criteria include situations where an employee has been demoted, where there is a shortage of skilled workers, where some of the employees are required to travel and others are not, and where some of the employees are in a training program (among other criteria "“ see the Regulation for more details).
Crucially, the Regulations define "employment statu" to mean "an employee's status as a full-time, part-time, permanent, or temporary employee". In other words, the amendments will generally prohibit federally regulated employers from paying employees different wage rates based on their employment status (e.g., paying part-time or temporary employees lower wage rates than full-time or permanent employees). However, there would be exceptions to this new prohibition, in that employers would be permitted to pay employees different wage rates due to a system based on: (i) seniority; (ii) merit; or (iii) the "quantity or quality of the employee's production".
Additionally, impacted employers would be prohibited from reducing employee' wages in order to comply with the equal treatment requirement. In other words, non-compliant employers will only be able to become complaint by increasing the wages of employees whose wage rates are lower than other employees performing the same type of work.
Furthermore, any federally regulated employees who believe that their wage rates do not comply with the equal treatment requirements will have the right to request that their employer review their wage rate. Where this occurs, the employer will be required to formally review the employee's wage rate and provide a written response within 90 days. Moreover, employers will be prohibited from reprising against any employees who request a review of their wage rate.
Federally regulated employers that inform existing employees about employment opportunities in writing will also be required to inform all of their employees of such opportunities, irrespective of their employment status.
Similarly, the new sections 203.1 to 203.5 of the CLC will enact essentially the same requirements, but in relation to employees of temporary help agencies who perform work assignments in federally regulated employer' industrial establishments. In other words, workers who are employed by a temporary help agency and who are assigned to perform work at a federally regulated employer's industrial establishment will generally be required to be paid the same wage rate as employees who perform the same type of work (subject to the same exceptions discussed above).
Finally, the Regulation will also enact administrative monetary penalties for violations of the new equal treatment and temporary help agency requirements.
The Bottom Line
The new equal treatment requirements under the CLC will come into effect soon, likely in spring 2026. Unfortunately, these new requirements may prove very costly for federally regulated employers who pay part-time or temporary employees at a lower wage rate than full-time permanent employees. Nonetheless, such employers can proactively take steps prior to the requirements coming into effect to reduce their potential exposures if they act quickly, and in many cases, they may be able to avail themselves of the various exceptions to the new requirements.
If you require assistance with navigating the new requirements discussed above while minimizing your busines' potential exposures, please do not hesitate to contact us for expert guidance and legal advice.
