Question Period Note: Gender Wage Gap and Economic Participation

Why is the gender wage gap still persistent and why are women still at greater risk of economic instability?

• In 2021, women earned 88 cents for every dollar earned by men, 1 cent less than they earned in 2020, showing us how fragile our progress on gender equality can be and reinforces the need to continue our work on economic equity.

• That’s why the Government of Canada is committed to advancing women’s economic participation through a number of key investments, including:
o $30B over 5 years to build a Canada-wide Early Learning and Child Care System;
o $115M over 5 years, to expand the Foreign Credential Recognition Program that reduces barriers for newcomers to fully participate in the labour market, led by Employment and Social Development Canada;
o $84.2M over 4 years to double funding for the Union Training and Innovation Program to help apprentices from underrepresented groups begin and succeed in careers in the skilled trades, led by Employment and Social Development Canada; and
o Passing Proactive Pay Equity legislation, in 2018, with Pay Equity Regulations that came into force in August 2021 to create a regime that will ensure that women and men working in federally regulated workplaces receive equal pay for work of equal value.

Investment

• Since 2015, through the Women’s Program, WAGE has invested a total of $130.9M to support 256 projects aimed at improving women’s economic participation and prosperity.

• Through the $100M Feminist Response and Recovery Fund, funding is being provided to 246 projects to support women’s economic security and to build partnerships to address systemic issues.

Results

• In 2020-21, projects funded through the Women’s Program created and disseminated 153 different resources to increase awareness of what services and supports were available and how to access them. Other projects connected women to services. As a result of these projects, 368,229 women gained access to services and supports that resulted in better opportunities in education, employment, health, and social services.

• In addition, 84% of projects in this category increased people’s knowledge and skills to support more equitable outcomes for women. As a result of these resources and training workshops, nearly 370,000 people gained skills and knowledge to create more equitable conditions for women in various spheres.

Project examples

• In 2021, WAGE funded Connecture Canada for a total of $1M, to strengthen diversity within Canadian businesses and organizations and help businesses identify qualified black women to overcome existing systemic barriers. This project will showcase businesses and organizations that contribute to the advancement of Black women. The project will end in 2024.
• Between 2018 and 2022, the Adoption Council of Canada received $602,500 to identify and address key policies that create systemic barriers for young women aging out of foster care in five provinces and territories. These include gaps in child welfare permanency planning, education, employment, housing, health care and the justice system.
• The Calgary Immigrant Women’s Association undertook a project to increase access to affordable alternative childcare for immigrant women working in the food service industry. The organization offered free childcare services, resulting in 43% of women moving to full-time work, 29% receiving promotions, and 14% re-entering the labour force.

BACKGROUND:
• A number of factors can impede women’s earning ability, contributing to the gender wage gap, including:
o The distribution of women and men across industries where male-dominated professional occupations are typically associated with much higher average wages.
o Insufficient options for child and elder care that result in women doing more unpaid caregiving and having less time for paid work, which translates into part-time or temporary work.
o The “motherhood earnings penalty”, as mothers adjust their participation in the labour market to accommodate childrearing responsibilities.
o Societal norms and biases that influence the value of jobs and wages, with work done by women being undervalued.
o After accounting for these factors, nearly two-thirds of the gender wage gap remains unexplained due to unobservable factors (e.g. bias, discrimination).

• Between 2020 and 2021, the gender wage gap widened by 1 percent. Possible explanations for this include: employment losses at greater rates for women during the pandemic; temporary shifts for women from full-time to part-time work, and/or job losses in higher paying sectors and job gains in lower paying sectors during COVID.

• Intersectional factors demonstrate even wider wage gaps. In 2018, when comparing average hourly wages of both part-time and full-time employees, Indigenous women earned 80 cents for every dollar earned by men, while immigrant women earned 82 cents for every dollar earned by men.

• Other government supports include:
o Proactive Pay Equity legislation, which creates a regime that will ensure that women and men working in federally regulated workplaces receive equal pay for work of equal value. Legislation was passed on December 13, 2018; Pay Equity Regulations came into force on August 31, 2021.
o Pay Transparency measures, which will provide Canadians with more information on pay practices of employers in the federally regulated sector, including converting existing pay information filed by federally regulated employers under the Employment Equity Act into more user-friendly online content, making existing wage gaps more evident.

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