Pay equity legislation covering private sector, care sector coming next year: Holt [video]

The provincial government plans to table long-awaited pay equity legislation covering the private sector and care sector next year.

Premier Susan Holt announced the plan on Friday, as people gathered outside the Legislative Assembly during an event marking the 25th anniversary of the first World March of Women. 

“I can’t wait for the day when we’ll have a bill before the Legislative Assembly,” she told the crowd. “We’ll work with the private sector, bring everyone together, and move pay equity forward here in New Brunswick, in 2026.”

Generally defined as equal pay for work of equal value, pay equity is a longstanding demand from social justice activists, who note that women tend to be concentrated in relatively low-paid fields, particularly caregiving work.

Provincial pay equity legislation for the public service came into effect in 2010, but the Act doesn’t apply to the private sector. In their 2024 election campaign, Premier Susan Holt’s Liberal Party promised pay equity legislation applying to the private sector and care sector.

In 2000, 139 women from New Brunswick travelled by bus to New York — with stops in Fredericton, Moncton, Montreal, and Ottawa — where they took part in the historic World March of Women and called for the adoption of pay equity legislation.

That goal remains unfinished business, the New Brunswick Coalition for Pay Equity said in a statement. The organizers said that more than 250 people took part in Friday’s march, renewing demands for pay equity legislation and concrete measures to end gender-based violence.

“Marching together today is a powerful reminder of our collective strength,” coalition chair Raphaëlle Valay-Nadeau said in the statement. “If we’re still here 25 years later, it’s because the demands made in 2000 remain just as urgent.”

“Seeing women from every generation walking side by side again is deeply moving,” former Senator Nancy Hartling, co-chair of the 2000 New Brunswick delegation, was quoted as saying. “Twenty-five years later, we’re still marching for the same values, and that solidarity remains as strong as ever.”

Friday’s event took place on the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty, mirroring the date a quarter century ago when an international rally took place at the United Nations in New York City.

Organizers said the date was symbolic for for those who believe that “correcting wage discrimination is correcting a major cause of women’s poverty.”

Attendees on Friday also included Minister responsible for Women’s Equality Lyne Chantal Boudreau, Lieutenant-Governor Louise Imbeault, and Fredericton Mayor Kate Rogers, organizers said.

This story was last updated on Monday, Oct. 20, 2025. 

David Gordon Koch is a journalist with the NB Media Co-op. This reporting has been made possible in part by the Government of Canada via the Local Journalism Initiative.