When Mark Zuckerberg hosted a townhall in late May with Facebook‘s 48,000 employees, some were tuning in from new cities they had scrambled to move to as the pandemic hit.
Zuckerberg had a clear message for them: if you plan to stay, expect a change to your pay.
“That means if you live in a location where the cost of living is dramatically lower, or the cost of labour is lower, then salaries do tend to be somewhat lower in those places,” he said on the video conference, where he announced more employees would be allowed to work remotely permanently.
Zuckerberg gave Canadian and American workers until Jan. 1, 2021 to inform the company about their location, so it can properly complete taxes and accounting and use virtual private network checks to confirm staff are where they claim.
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The demand is part of a new reality Canadian workers are being confronted with as employers try to quell the spread of COVID-19 and increasingly consider making remote work permanent.
2:48 Some Shopify employees will work from home permanently: CEO
Some Shopify employees will work from home permanently: CEO
The shift means many companies are having to rethink salaries and compensation, while grappling with the logistics of a new work model.
Only one-third of Canadians working remotely expect to resume working from the office as consistently as they did pre-pandemic, while one-in-five say they will remain primarily at home, according to a June study from the Angus Reid Institute.
Like Facebook, Canadian technology companies Shopify Inc. and Open Text Corp. have already announced more employees will soon have the option to permanently work remotely.
Both declined interviews with The Canadian Press, but Richard Leblanc, a professor of governance, law and ethics at York University, said he wouldn’t be surprised if their staff that relocate will see their pay change.
“If you, for example decide, that you could do the majority of your work from well outside the Greater Toronto Area…and you want to buy a home in Guelph or in Hamilton, should we expect the base salary for those individuals might change? Yes, because your cost of living has changed and your expenses have changed.”
If companies calculate salaries properly, neither the business nor workers should feel their salary adjustments are unfair, Leblanc said.
However, figuring out what to pay staff transitioning to permanent remote work is tough, especially with a pandemic raging on and forcing some businesses to lay off workers or keep companies closed.
2:32 Coronavirus: Ford says plan coming for safe return to school, will work to ensure teachers’ safety
Coronavirus: Ford says plan coming for safe return to school, will work to ensure teachers’ safety
Owners have to consider what salaries will help them retain talent, but also how their costs will change if workers are at home.
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Companies, for example, may be able to slash real estate costs because they don’t need as much — or any — office space, but may now have to cover higher taxes, pay for their workers to buy desks or supplies for their homes or offer a budget for them to use on renting spaces to meet clients.
“(Businesses) are looking at every line item on their on their income statement….because they want to make sure they can survive and thrive over the long-term,” said Jean McClellan, a partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP’s Canadian consulting practice.
Companies like GitLab, an all-remote company in San Francisco focused on tools for software developers, may offer some clues about how Canadian companies opting for permanent remote work can tackle salaries.
When GitLab started offering permanent remote work years ago it built a compensation calculator combining a worker’s role and seniority with a rent index that correlates local market salaries with rent prices in the area.
Anyone can visit GitLab’s site and plug in a role, experience level and location to find a salary.
GitLab’s junior data engineers, for example, make between $50,936 and $68,913 if they live in Whitehorse, Yellowknife or Iqaluit, where the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation said the average rents for a two-bedroom home last October were $1,695, $1,100 and $2,678 respectively.
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That salary shoots up to anywhere from $74,359 to $100,603 for those living in Toronto, Vancouver or Victoria, where CMHC reported the average rents for a two-bedroom home last October were $1,562, $1,748 and $1,448 respectively.
Leblanc warned that varying remote work salaries can create “a global competition for talent in an online world.”
People who apply for permanent remote jobs, he said, may find their fighting for the role against far more people than ever before because companies will be able to source talent living anywhere in the world.
The companies that don’t offer remote work at all could also find themselves at a disadvantage, if their industry starts to value flexibility and look less favourably at companies that don’t offer it.
GitLab settled on its model and calculator because the company said they offer transparency and eliminate biases around race, gender or disabilities.
2:01 Performers are feeling the impact of the coronavirus closures.
Performers are feeling the impact of the coronavirus closures.
Its co-founder Sid Sijbrandij wrote in a blog that the calculator was dreamed up because every time he hired someone, there was a conversation around reasonable compensation.
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The negotiation would usually revolve around what the person made beforehand, which was dependent on what city they were in. Gitlab scrapped that model in favour of the calculator and also started letting workers know if they move their salary could change.
However, GitLab acknowledges that many people see paying someone less for the same work in the same role regardless of where they live as “harsh.” The company disagrees.
“We can’t remain consistent if we make exceptions to the policy and allow someone to make greater than local competitive rate for the same work others in that region are doing (or will be hired to do),” it says.
“We realize we might lose a few good people over this pay policy, but being fair to all team members is not negotiable.”
TORONTO – Canada Goose Holdings Inc. says it has signed a deal that will result in the creation of its first eyewear collection.
The deal announced on Thursday by the Toronto-based luxury apparel company comes in the form of an exclusive, long-term global licensing agreement with Marchon Eyewear Inc.
The terms and value of the agreement were not disclosed, but Marchon produces eyewear for brands including Lacoste, Nike, Calvin Klein, Ferragamo, Longchamp and Zeiss.
Marchon plans to roll out both sunglasses and optical wear under the Canada Goose name next spring, starting in North America.
Canada Goose says the eyewear will be sold through optical retailers, department stores, Canada Goose shops and its website.
Canada Goose CEO Dani Reiss told The Canadian Press in August that he envisioned his company eventually expanding into eyewear and luggage.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 19, 2024.
Almost seven years since news broke of an alleged conspiracy to fix the price of packaged bread across Canada, the saga isn’t over: the Competition Bureau continues to investigate the companies that may have been involved, and two class-action lawsuits continue to work their way through the courts.
Here’s a timeline of key events in the bread price-fixing case.
Oct. 31, 2017: The Competition Bureau says it’s investigating allegations of bread price-fixing and that it was granted search warrants in the case. Several grocers confirm they are co-operating in the probe.
Dec. 19, 2017: Loblaw and George Weston say they participated in an “industry-wide price-fixing arrangement” to raise the price of packaged bread. The companies say they have been co-operating in the Competition Bureau’s investigation since March 2015, when they self-reported to the bureau upon discovering anti-competitive behaviour, and are receiving immunity from prosecution. They announce they are offering $25 gift cards to customers amid the ongoing investigation into alleged bread price-fixing.
Jan. 31, 2018: In court documents, the Competition Bureau says at least $1.50 was added to the price of a loaf of bread between about 2001 and 2016.
Dec. 20, 2019: A class-action lawsuit in a Quebec court against multiple grocers and food companies is certified against a number of companies allegedly involved in bread price-fixing, including Loblaw, George Weston, Metro, Sobeys, Walmart Canada, Canada Bread and Giant Tiger (which have all denied involvement, except for Loblaw and George Weston, which later settled with the plaintiffs).
Dec. 31, 2021: A class-action lawsuit in an Ontario court covering all Canadian residents except those in Quebec who bought packaged bread from a company named in the suit is certified against roughly the same group of companies.
June 21, 2023: Bakery giant Canada Bread Co. is fined $50 million after pleading guilty to four counts of price-fixing under the Competition Act as part of the Competition Bureau’s ongoing investigation.
Oct. 25 2023: Canada Bread files a statement of defence in the Ontario class action denying participating in the alleged conspiracy and saying any anti-competitive behaviour it participated in was at the direction and to the benefit of its then-majority owner Maple Leaf Foods, which is not a defendant in the case (neither is its current owner Grupo Bimbo). Maple Leaf calls Canada Bread’s accusations “baseless.”
Dec. 20, 2023: Metro files new documents in the Ontario class action accusing Loblaw and its parent company George Weston of conspiring to implicate it in the alleged scheme, denying involvement. Sobeys has made a similar claim. The two companies deny the allegations.
July 25, 2024: Loblaw and George Weston say they agreed to pay a combined $500 million to settle both the Ontario and Quebec class-action lawsuits. Loblaw’s share of the settlement includes a $96-million credit for the gift cards it gave out years earlier.
Sept. 12, 2024: Canada Bread files new documents in Ontario court as part of the class action, claiming Maple Leaf used it as a “shield” to avoid liability in the alleged scheme. Maple Leaf was a majority shareholder of Canada Bread until 2014, and the company claims it’s liable for any price-fixing activity. Maple Leaf refutes the claims.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 19, 2024.
Companies in this story: (TSX:L, TSX:MFI, TSX:MRU, TSX:EMP.A, TSX:WN)
TORONTO – TD Bank Group, which is mired in a money laundering scandal in the U.S., says chief executive Bharat Masrani will retire next year.
Masrani, who will retire officially on April 10, 2025, says the bank’s, “anti-money laundering challenges,” took place on his watch and he takes full responsibility.
The bank named Raymond Chun, TD’s group head, Canadian personal banking, as his successor.
As part of a transition plan, Chun will become chief operating officer on Nov. 1 before taking over the top job when Masrani steps down at the bank’s annual meeting next year.
TD also announced that Riaz Ahmed, group head, wholesale banking and president and CEO of TD Securities, will retire at the end of January 2025.
TD has taken billions in charges related to ongoing U.S. investigations into the failure of its anti-money laundering program.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 19, 2024.
