Privacy pitfalls of quoting fees based on salary multipliers

The British Columbia association for Consulting Engineers (CEBC) has started advising its members that they should not be using staff salaries as the basis for quoting fees for projects. Salary multipliers are a common method of quoting in the field, but doing so discloses the personal information of the individual employee (namely, their salary). This advice is restricted to British Columbia, where the Pesonal Information Protection Act applies to employee personal information. While PIPEDA does not apply to employees of consulting engineers in the "PIPEDA provices", it is a good practice to follow. See: Canadian Consulting Engineer - 1/3/2006 - British Columbia engineering firms advised not to use salaries as basis for quoting fees.