Gender pay gap still an issue in Canada StatsCan data shows

New data show the split in annual earnings between men and women persists in Canada, Tavia Grant reports. If the trend isn’t addressed, long-term drawbacks for our economy will be unavoidable

Theglobeandmail.com
March 6, 2017
By Tavia Grant

It may be 2017 and Canada may have a self-proclaimed feminist as Prime Minister, but gender parity is not yet the norm in Canadian workplaces.

Recent annual data show that, in yearly earnings, women working full time in Canada still earned 74.2 cents for every dollar that full-time male workers made. Another measure that controls for the fact that men typically work more hours than women - the hourly wage rate - shows women earned 87.9 cents on the dollar as of last year.

The updated numbers, compiled from Statistics Canada data, show the pay gap exists in every province and in every major occupational group, though there are variations. The gap in annual earnings between men and women has barely budged over the past two decades, even as education levels among women have surpassed those of men.

Canada’s gender pay disparity is larger than the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development average. Canada has also tumbled down the World Economic Forum’s global gender gap rankings, to 35 th place, from 19th place two years earlier.

“We’re kind of stuck,” with regards to the pay gap, said Sarah Kaplan, director of the Institute for Gender and the Economy at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management, who calls the persistent gap “outrageous.”

It also carries long-term consequences. Depriving women of equal pay hurts their ability to save. With longer life expectancies, this means they are living longer on reduced retirement income, Prof. Kaplan said. As well, “if you pay women less than men, they feel devalued in the workplace. They’re more likely to drop out of the workplace. You then lose a productive worker in an economy where we’re desperate for talent ... There are plenty of economic reasons why we should have equal pay.”

Progress on women in the workplace has been “disappointing,” says a report to be released Monday that grades the federal government on efforts to advance women’s rights and gender equality.

The scorecard, by Oxfam Canada, released ahead of this week’s International Women’s Day, assesses the government in eight areas. It scores well in representation - creating Canada’s first gender-balanced cabinet and restoring funding for women’s rights advocacy. More should be done to address violence against women and the unequal distribution of unpaid work, the report said.

The area where least progress has been made is in jobs and pay equity - addressing the unequal economics of women’s work.

“It’s disappointing because the government’s overall focus on gender equality and inclusive growth would lead you to believe that this would be an area of priority,” said Lauren Ravon, Ottawa-based director of policy and campaigns for Oxfam. “This is an area where it can really make a difference in women’s lives. If we’re not tackling issues of access to work and poverty, it’s very hard to make progress on other fronts for women.”