Current Trends in Pay Equity and Closing the Gender Wage Gap

 As workers in Canada, we are entitled to a multitude of rights, but it is not always that those rights are applied in the work environment.

One of the most common violations of our rights are human beings and workers is the wage gap between men and women.

Canada is working hard in achieving pay equity and closing the gender wage gap, but what exactly is being done and how are we doing currently? If you believe you are a victim of inequity in pay, consider talking to an employment lawyers in Calgary.

What Is the Gender Pay Gap?

A gender pay gap is, in short, the difference between salaries and pay between men and women who do similar jobs when compared—or even the same job.

It is considered one of the main indicators of gender inequities, it happens across industries and worldwide. The gender pay gap is seen to be worse with racialized women, indigenous women, and women with disabilities according to Statistics Canada in 2019. Addressing pay inequality is extremely important to guarantee that women are able to achieve financial stability and economic well-being, as well as to battle generations-long gender-based discrimination.

The Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) saw in a recent study (2022) that, on average, the difference between full-time employees' annual median pay was 16.1%, between men and women.

Statistics Canada found similar numbers when comparing the hourly pay between men and women, with women earning 11.1% less than men for similar jobs. Ending the gender pay gap is pivotal in today’s society. The gender pay gap impacts every stage of women’s work life:  Girls Guide of Canada found in 2018 that the difference between boys and girls (12 to 18 years of age) hourly pay was almost $3.00. Leaving post-secondary, those who took student loans have fewer means to pay them, and the Mercer CFA Institute found in 2021 that women retire with only 80% of the pension men retire with.

Currently, the World Economic Forum lists Canada in 40th place out of 156 countries for gender equality.

What is Being Done?

With the current situation being extremely worrisome between men and gender-diverse people, what is currently being done in Canada to change it?

Canada has been evolving its pay equity policies since 1970, and currently, the most recent update was done in 2018 and enforced in 2021—the Pay Equity Act. Other important documents that protect the rights of workers are the Employment Equity Act, the Canadian Human Rights Act, and provincial and territorial employment and human rights laws.

The Alberta Human Rights Act enforces those rules by making it a provincial law as well, prohibiting discrimination based on the ground of gender. When workers perform the same or substantially similar roles, they must be paid the same rate of pay.

The government of Alberta also has financial support in order for women who want to start their own businesses or expand them, supporting Alberta’s economy as well as the economic well-being of women. Similarly, programs for affordable child care are pivotal, as women are “punished” for wanting to have a family as they spend twice as many hours on unpaid work related to child care and home chores as men.

The gender wage gap has been diminishing constantly from 18.8% in 1998 to 11.1% in 2021, but more still needs to be done. Considering 23 years have passed and only 7.7% of the difference was achieved, more focus on equity must be done, and more employers need to be held accountable when not conforming with equity policies and not actively pursuing more fairness in the workplace.