Pay Equity- Statistics, Legislations and Why Women Worn in Low - Paid Jobs
Dey 1
Debangshu Dey
13th January 2011 Pay Equity: A Struggle A Brief Study of Pay Equity in Canada Men and Women should not be called the opposite sexes, instead referred to as complimentary sexes. The sexes should be treated equally in every aspect, one of which is in the pay they receive. The sexes should receive equal wages for equal work. It should be more about ‘from each according to his ability, to each according to his need’. Statistics show that men are paid more than women for the same work. One may think if women are really paid less, why would anyone hire a man? Put another way, would not a company full of men will soon be put out of job by a company which hired only women. The truth is that the pay gap can be attributed to large scale discrimination against women. Men who earn more most often do so because of their gender. To get higher pay, men are more likely to enter higher-paying fields, perform riskier tasks and take positions with less stability which explains the fact that only 26% of all miners are women. To tackle this problem of unequal pay, various movements have risen in the recent times ensuring pay equity. In Canada, the purpose of the Pay Equity Act is to achieve equality in the workplace so that no person shall be denied employment opportunities. Though massive strides have been undertaken in the past for pay equity, the true scenario of pay equity
Dey 2 has not been achieved as there is wage disparity in various jobs undertaken by women including unequal pay in the field of sports, and why women tend to work at low paid jobs. There is pay inequity almost in any profession undertaken by women. Men earn significantly more than women despite the existence of the Pay Equity Act. During the time when Baby Boomers were joining the workforce, women earned 59 cents to the dollar till the 1980s where the wage gap was narrowed by just 15 cents to just 74 cents to the dollar. Back then, the pay equity legislations
Debangshu Dey
13th January 2011 Pay Equity: A Struggle A Brief Study of Pay Equity in Canada Men and Women should not be called the opposite sexes, instead referred to as complimentary sexes. The sexes should be treated equally in every aspect, one of which is in the pay they receive. The sexes should receive equal wages for equal work. It should be more about ‘from each according to his ability, to each according to his need’. Statistics show that men are paid more than women for the same work. One may think if women are really paid less, why would anyone hire a man? Put another way, would not a company full of men will soon be put out of job by a company which hired only women. The truth is that the pay gap can be attributed to large scale discrimination against women. Men who earn more most often do so because of their gender. To get higher pay, men are more likely to enter higher-paying fields, perform riskier tasks and take positions with less stability which explains the fact that only 26% of all miners are women. To tackle this problem of unequal pay, various movements have risen in the recent times ensuring pay equity. In Canada, the purpose of the Pay Equity Act is to achieve equality in the workplace so that no person shall be denied employment opportunities. Though massive strides have been undertaken in the past for pay equity, the true scenario of pay equity
Dey 2 has not been achieved as there is wage disparity in various jobs undertaken by women including unequal pay in the field of sports, and why women tend to work at low paid jobs. There is pay inequity almost in any profession undertaken by women. Men earn significantly more than women despite the existence of the Pay Equity Act. During the time when Baby Boomers were joining the workforce, women earned 59 cents to the dollar till the 1980s where the wage gap was narrowed by just 15 cents to just 74 cents to the dollar. Back then, the pay equity legislations
Cited: Farrell,Warren. Why Men Earn More. New York: AMACOM, 2005. Misha Werschkul. “Evidence From Census 2000 About Earnings by Detailed Occupation for Men and Women.” Census 2000 Special Reports. May 2004. Wherry, Aaron. “Is this the quiet end to pay equity?” Macleans. February 2010.