I'm posting this article in in honor of International Women's Day (Mar.8).
Jul. 11, 2021 "Canadian women make 89 cents for every dollar men earn. Can new federal legislation narrow that gap?": Today I found this article by Nick Boisvert on CBC News.
Gender equality advocates and labour experts say legislation going into effect later this summer likely will work to reduce the pay gap between women and men in some Canadian workplaces — though it remains unclear whether those gains will ripple out across the larger economy.
Ottawa announced on Wednesday that its Pay Equity Act will go into effect on August 31, about three years after the legislation was first unveiled.
"I think it's a start in a good direction, but I do think we need to get into that deeper discussion and deeper regulation ... to make sure more people benefit," said Andrea Gunraj, vice president of public engagement at the Canadian Women's Foundation.
While Gunraj was generally positive about the legislation, she said its effects will be restricted to a tiny share of working Canadians.
"It's hard to say that it's going to have this big impact across our whole labour market," she said.
The new legislation means that employers in federally regulated sectors with 10 or more employees will have three years to identify and correct pay disparities within their workforces — disparities which most often result in women earning less than men.
Women in Canada's workforce earn approximately 89 cents for every dollar earned by men, according to the federal government. A 2018 report by Statistics Canada found that women earned 87 cents for every dollar earned by men.
Women also suffered more severe and longer-lasting economic losses than men during the pandemic, according to Statistics Canada and numerous reports.
About 1.3 million people, or six per cent of Canadian workers, are employed in federally regulated sectors and will be affected by the new legislation.
That includes industries such as banking, air travel, railways and most Crown corporations, among others.
How to define 'work of equal value'
Labour Minister Filomena Tassi said her government's new approach to pay equity will have a "transformative" effect on the persistent earnings gap that women face.
The regulations are meant to address that issue by forcing employers to conduct thorough reviews of their workforces with the goal of providing employees "equal pay for work of equal value."
In other words, employers can't just calibrate salaries for women and men in the exact same positions. They will instead have to identify all roles in their organizations that provide similar levels of value, and then increase salaries when jobs are found to be underpaid.
Employers will have to consider the "skill, effort, responsibilities, and working conditions of those jobs," says the legislation.
"We see women occupying professions in caregiving, in services, and those professions have predominantly been undervalued," Tassi told CBC News.
Canada's pay equity commissioner Karen Jensen will be able to levy $30,000 fines on employers with up to 99 staff that don't comply, and $50,000 fines on those with larger workforces.
Legislation leaves 'a lot of room for interpretation'
But the value of different jobs is open to interpretation, something which could complicate workforce reviews, warns Jordan Kirkness, a labour and employment lawyer at Baker McKenzie.
He said the federal government has provided strong guidelines for employers to conduct those reviews, though he expects that disputes related to the act are inevitable.
"Complying with the act is not just a matter of following simple instructions. There's a lot of room for interpretation," Kirkness said.
Still, he described the regulations as a positive step and said they are more comprehensive than pay equity laws already in place in some provinces.
Also unclear is whether the legislation will have any effect on employees in workplaces not governed by federal regulations.
Tassi said the government is displaying "strong leadership" on pay equity, but organizations outside federal jurisdiction will not be required to follow the new rules.
Gunraj said that might happen in some cases — especially if workers and labour groups push for the changes.
"It's a good indication of what needs to happen at large. And it's perhaps a way for people who are in unionized sectors to say, 'Hey this is happening here, how about we do this in our sector as well?'" she said.
NDP critic for women and gender equality Lindsay Mathyssen said she was happy to see the legislation come into effect — although she noted that it arrives "far too late" to address the economic disparities made worse by the pandemic.
Feb. 3, 2022 "Viral post shows who's to blame for pay inequity": Today I found this article by Mandi Woodruff-Santos on Yahoo news:
The next time someone tells me women just need to be better negotiators if they want equal pay, I’m going to immediately send them this screenshot of a LinkedIn post that went viral over the weekend:
“I just offered a candidate $85,000 for a job that had a budget of $130K. I offered her that because that’s what she asked for and I personally don’t have the bandwidth to give lessons on salary negotiation.”
As a career coach who has made it my life’s work to help women build wealth, the post by a recruiter for Honeywell — a Fortune 500 company — sent my blood boiling. (She later removed the post and apologized via Twitter.)
From recruiters to hiring managers and all the way up the ladder to the C-suite, the people in power have to care about salary equality or else we’ll never see the end of the gender and racial wage gap. We have got to stop putting the onus on job candidates to “know their worth” and “ask for more” at the bargaining table.
Recruiters like this one and the companies that hire them are the ones with all the information and all of the power, so why do we still expect workers to read their minds just to get paid a reasonable salary?
As a senior director at a financial services firm for nearly five years, I hired dozens of employees and went through many salary negotiations.
I saw a senior leader once shrug when I pointed out a glaring pay gap between two workers in the same role. One worker, a white woman, was earning $15,000 more than her peer, a Black woman who had been hired several months later.
“Well, she had a chance to negotiate and she didn’t,” he said.
I pointed out the fact that the first woman who was paid more didn’t negotiate, either. She received a higher salary because, at the time, our budget for the role was higher. Since that time, we’d been acquired by a new company and a new finance team had designated a lower salary range for the role.
I felt that it was our fault she was underpaid and, as a result, our responsibility to fix it.
As a Black woman myself, I felt even more pressure to close the gap. I went over that senior leader’s head and submitted a request for a compensation adjustment myself.
Fortunately, it was granted, but the fact that a Black woman on my team was paid less than a white woman for so long still haunts me.
Had I shared this Honeywell recruiter's attitude about compensation, she might still be underpaid years later.
Rather than close out this article with a list of tips for job candidates on how to make sure they’re compensated fairly, let me instead address the people who actually have the power to make sure workers are paid fairly. Business leaders, take notes.
Create a compensation review board/committee
Task this group with reviewing compensation across the entire company and identifying unusual disparities. Give them the power to address issues and close gaps.
Publish salary ranges for open roles
Instead of requiring job candidates to guess what a role is worth, publish a range on the job listing itself so they know when they apply. Fortunately, this is now the law in several states, including California, Colorado, and New York.
Regularly review compensation across roles to keep up with market rates
And make compensation adjustments to workers’ salaries when their market value rises.
Empower managers to recommend pay adjustments when they spot inequities
I give a lot of credit to my company for having a process through which I was able to submit my request for a salary adjustment for my underpaid staffer. Still, I know that it can be incredibly intimidating for many managers to speak up and voice concerns, even if there is such a process. Companies should train management on how to advocate for their workers and what to do if they spot any issues that need to be addressed.
Make sure annual reviews are peer-reviewed
I loved the process at one of my former employers where managers had to meet with a group of 2-3 senior leaders and a member of human resources to explain why they were requesting promotions, bonuses, and pay increases for their team. It forced managers to justify those requests and gave other colleagues a chance to compare notes and share their thoughts.
Mandi Woodruff is an inclusive wealth-building and career expert, cohost of the Brown Ambition Podcast and founder of the MandiMoney Makers community.
Viral post shows who's to blame for pay inequity (yahoo.com)
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