iN NUMBERS: Gender pay gap closing slowly in B.C.

A lot of people view British Columbia as a progressive province, but the gender pay gap is still significant. The provincial government recently released its third annual pay transparency report showing where the gender pay gap is widest in B.C.

Here are the numbers:

• 14.5: Per cent. That’s the average gender pay gap in B.C. for 2025, down from 18.4 per cent in 2022. 
• 18: Per cent. That’s the gender pay gap in professional, scientific and technical services. 
• 9: Per cent. That’s the gender pay gap in retail.
• 700: Employers in B.C. were required to post pay transparency reports in 2025. 
• 50: Employees or more. That’s the new prerequisite for requiring employers to submit a pay transparency report starting November 2026. 
• 83: Cents on the dollar. That’s how much women aged 55 and older made compared to men in the same age group.
• 12: Percentage points. That was the reduction in the gender pay gap in agriculture, fishing and hunting between 2024 and 2025. The largest pay gap improvement by industry that year. 
• 69: Cents on the dollar. That’s how much a female new immigrant, in Canada five years or fewer, made compared to Canadian-born men. 
• 3: Language translations of the pay transparency report are readily available: Chinese, Punjabi and Tagalog.