This paper uses the Canadian case to argue that international commitments to equal treatment and remuneration require proactive, enforced and monitored legislation along with other strategies designed within each country to fit their particular context and history. Because pay equity is a strategy that recognizes that inequality is about more than individuals and their characteristics, it has the potential to alter structural relations and make more fundamental change. This can only happen if we continually learn from the experiences of applying it, and adapt it to new conditions by combining it with other equity strategies. Equity also requires co-operation across boundaries to ensure the response is not simply to export inequity.