To achieve pay equity, employers must identify female jobs, which are mostly or traditionally done by women, such as librarian, childcare worker or secretary. Employers also identify male jobs, which are mostly or traditionally done by men, such as truck driver, firefighter, or shipper/receiver. Men sometimes work in female jobs that receive pay equity adjustments and women sometimes work in male jobs that do not receive adjustments. Pay equity only provides adjustments to underpaid female dominated jobs.   
  

There are three criteria which determine the gender of a job class. A job class is considered female or male according to the percentage of employees in that job class. Usually, if 60% of the employees are female, it's a female job class; if 70% are male, it's a male job class; if there are about the same number of female and males, it's gender neutral. However, employers must also consider the gender of the employees who have done the work in the past and the gender which is usually or stereotypically associated with that kind of work. For example, the job of secretary or nurse would immediately be thought of as female and a truck driver or plumber is usually thought of as male.

Employers then determine the value of jobs, based on the levels of skill, effort, responsibility and working conditions involved in doing the work, and the job rate, which is defined in the Act as the highest rate of compensation for a job class. Compensation includes all payments and benefits paid to an employee.

For an example of a comparison of female and male jobs see job #1 below. The job class of Secretary is comparable in value to that of a Shipper/Receiver but receives a lower rate of pay. To achieve pay equity, the secretary's job rate should be adjusted by $1.25 so that this job rate is at least the same as the shipper/receiver's job rate. 

Chart #1:  Pay Equity comparison between female and male job classes of comparale value
Secretary	Value and Job rate	Shipper / Reciever	Value and Job Rate
Skill Effort Responsibility Working Conditions	25 13 32 5	Skill Effort Responsibility Working Conditions	18 15 25 15
Job Value	75	Job Value	73
Job Rate Before Pay Equity Job Rate After Pay Equity	$13.75 / hr $15.00 / hr	Job Rate	$15.00 / hr