In Canada can employer force employees not to discuss wage?

Question

In Canada can an employer require its employees not to discuss wages (either internal or external of the company)? What if the employee signed a confidentiality agreement where they agreed not to discuss wages? I would really appreciate citation from authoritative sources.

Answer 1

In Canada can employer force employees not to discuss wage?

Not in Ontario. That would violate Section 74(1) of the Employment Standards Act, 2000:

No employer or person acting on behalf of an employer shall intimidate, dismiss or otherwise penalize an employee or threaten to do so,

(a) because the employee,

(v.2) discloses the employee’s rate of pay to another employee for the purpose of determining or assisting another person in determining whether an employer is complying with Part XII (Equal Pay for Equal Work)

See also Section 74.12(1)(a)(v.2).

What if the employee signed a confidentiality agreement where they agreed not to discuss wages?

The agreement would be void in that regard. See Section 5 of the same Standards:

[...] [N]o employer or agent of an employer and no employee or agent of an employee shall contract out of or waive an employment standard and any such contracting out or waiver is void.

The allowed exceptions are any clauses that provide a greater benefit to an employee than the employment standard (see 5(2)).

Answer 2

I know this question is a few years old, but I found the answer above when searching a similar question (also for Ontario) and I wanted to share my findings, as I think the accepted answer is incomplete and may be wrong in some cases.

Part XII of the Employment Standards Act is the Equal Pay for Equal Work section, which states (emphasis is mine):

Equal pay for equal work 42 (1) No employer shall pay an employee of one sex at a rate of pay less than the rate paid to an employee of the other sex when...

So it seems that, if the people discussing wages are of the same sex, then prohibiting discussing wages between them would not violate Part XII of the act, and therefore may be permitted. Part XII Subsection 2 states:

(2) Subsection (1) does not apply when the difference in the rate of pay is made on the basis of

• (d) any other factor other than sex. 2000, c. 41, s. 42 (2); 2017, c. 22, Sched. 1, s. 26 (1); 2018, c. 14, Sched. 1, s. 8 (1).

According to the act, reprisals for disclosing an employees pay is only prohibited if the purpose of disclosing the rate of pay is to determine whether there is a disparity in rate of pay between employees of opposite sexes related to Part XII. If this condition is not met because the comparison is between employees of the same sex, then reprisals would not violate Part XII.