Ontario government vows action on gender wage gap

Public consultations begin process to 'eliminate inequity for women in the workforce,’ as wage gaps estimated at 12 to 31.5 per cent.

Thestar.com
Oct. 8, 2015
By Richard J. Brennan and Laurie Monsebraaten

The Ontario government says it is determined to close the wage gap between men and women.

Labour Minister Kevin Flynn is to announce Thursday that the Gender Wage Gap Steering Committee will begin public consultation sessions this fall with groups across the province.

“We need to close the gender wage gap and eliminate inequity for women in the workforce. It is the right thing to do,” Flynn says in a release obtained by the Star.

And it is about time, say advocates who have been calling for provincial action on the issue for years.

“The committee was appointed in April and was supposed to have its report on consultations filed within seven months,” said lawyer Mary Cornish of the Equal Pay Coalition. “So they are way behind. At least they are getting started now.”

The coalition, which promotes the annual Equal Pay Day in Ontario, hopes Thursday’s announcement also includes a robust public-engagement campaign.

“The public needs to see that the government sees this as an important issue,” Cornish said.

According to the government release, Statistics Canada states that Ontario’s wage gap ranges from 12 per cent to 31.5 per cent and is most pronounced for aboriginal and women in minority groups.

The Royal Bank of Canada says the government, estimates personal incomes would be $168 billion higher each year if women in Canada had the same labour-market opportunities as men.

“While women participate in all parts of the workforce, there are still barriers that prevent women from achieving their economic potential,” Tracey MacCharles, minister responsible for women’s issue, states.

The Liberal government of David Peterson passed pay-equity legislation in the late 1980s intended to close the gap in salaries between male and female workers. It required employers to set up committees of workers to study the skills and requirements of jobs and compare the relative value, resulting in raises for women in female-dominated job categories that were paid less than male-dominated areas.

The act led to the creation of the Pay Equity Commission, which is composed of two separate and distinct bodies; the Pay Equity Office and the Pay Equity Hearings Tribunal.

The equity office investigates, attempts to settle and resolves pay-equity complaints and objections to pay-equity plans. The office also provides programs and services to help people understand and comply with the Pay Equity Act.

The hearings tribunal adjudicates disputes under the Act and has exclusive jurisdiction rule on complaints.

Among other things, the steering committee will examine how the role of women at work, in their families and in their communities are affected by the gender wage gap.

“It is much broader than just two people - a man and a woman - working in the same office doing the same job,” a government source says.

The steering committee members are: Linda Davis, past-president of the Business and Professional Women’s Clubs of Ontario, Parbudyal Singh, a leading expert in human resource management and labour relations, Emanuela Heyninck, Ontario’s pay equity commissioner, and Nancy Austin, executive lead for the Labour Ministry.