Gender equality is still an issue in Canada. Though it would be nice to say that men and women are completely equal in the corporate world, unfortunately, that just isn't the case.
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It's no secret that unlying sexism hard been hard to shake in the 20th century. We are getting better and better at providing the same opportunity for everyone, but some things are just hard to change.
When something has been a certain way forever, it tends to stick with people and societal expectations. So, just like with any other marginalized group, women tend to draw the short stick in a lot of cases. One of the most heavily disputed ways is with the gender pay gap.
In case you're not completely clear on what exactly that is, it's basically the difference between what men and women get paid. Of course, there are a ton of factors that determine this difference. It's not just that men and being paid more money, it's also the fact that men are often employed in higher paying positions.
And there is definitely a reason why most CEOs are men. It's not because men are more qualified across the board. Over time, we have bred a society in which successful women are not as desirable. So, the gender pay gap is simply a small part of a much bigger issue.
But when you really delve into the numbers, there is clear evidence that in many cases when they have the same experience and education, men and often paid more than women. This is where we see the unfair inequality that has plagued the world. If you want to read up all about this issue, you can here. Now I'm not making this up, the World Economic Forum recorded a gender pay gap in 145 countries.
Yesterday was "Equal Pay Day", a day set to bring attention to the fact that women would need to work an extra three-and-a-half months per year to earn the same as men do.
According to data from the Ontario Equal Pay Coalition and the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA), men earn an average income of $51,900 while women earn only $36,000. That's a gap of $15,900 every year.
Just by taking a look at this graph from Statistics Canada, you can clearly see that women are making less money than men across the board. Now what this graph is showing is the CCPA's gender pay gap ladder. They divided up income into 10 different levels in which they compared the incomes and men and women. So, it goes from the poorest 10 percent to the richest 10 percent. In every single case except the poorest rung, men earned more money than women.
This issue also causes impoverished women to fall further and further into debt. They are unable to pull themselves out of poverty. And on top of that, some groups are even further affected by this issue. Racialised and Indigenous women earn even less than white women do. In Ontario, Indigenous women have a 43% pay gap, racialized women a 38% pay gap, and immigrant women a 34% pay gap.
Though this is an issue all over the world, you may be very dismayed to know that Canada ranks 7th out of 34 countries in the Organization for Economic and Co-operation Development for having the highest gender pay gap. This is definitely something that needs to be addressed, in the government but also in our society. Obviously, there is no easy solution, but it's still worth talking about.
