EPIC

Message from the Pay Equity Unit of the Canadian Human Rights Commission

Submitted by ep_admin on Fri, 12/16/2022 - 05:30

Message from the Pay Equity Unit of the Canadian Human Rights Commission

16 Dec 2022

As you may know, Karen Jensen has recently left the Pay Equity Unit as she has been appointed Judge to Ontario’s Superior Court of Justice. We would like to acknowledge the outstanding work Commissioner Jensen has done over the last three years and congratulate her on her new role.

With Karen Jensen’s departure, the Pay Equity Unit is delighted to welcome Lori Straznicky as the new Federal Interim Pay Equity Commissioner. Commissioner Straznicky has dedicated her career to advancing workplace equity and fairness in various contexts. She played a key role in creating Canada’s Pay Equity Act and has extensive experience working and collaborating with stakeholders.

With this, Commissioner Straznicky looks forward to supporting the work of the Pay Equity Unit and she is eager to carry out the important mandate of advancing pay equity and addressing the gender wage gap in federal workplaces across Canada.

Updates from the Pay Equity Unit

New publications and resources

New publications are available on the Pay Equity Website of the Canadian Human Rights Commission:

Interpretations, Policies and Guidelines on subjects such as definition of employer and definition of non-unionized employees

Stay tuned for information about new publications on the Pay Equity Website by following the Pay Equity Unit on Twitter @FairPayCA.

Announcements

1. The recording of the First Pay Equity Townhall is now available here
2. If you are a small to medium employer in Canada’s federal jurisdiction and are looking to start your pay equity plan, you can now access the Pay Equity Toolkit by clicking on the following link: Pay Equity Toolkit.

Message from the Pay Equity unit - PDF

Ontario Pay Equity Office: Canada’s Gender Wage Gap has narrowed but the Gender Pension Gap has not

Submitted by ep_admin on Fri, 12/16/2022 - 05:30

Ontario Pay Equity Office: Canada’s Gender Wage Gap has narrowed but the Gender Pension Gap has not

16 Dec 2022

A new analysis published by Ontario’s Pay Equity Office (PEO) finds women in Canada, on average, received 18% less retirement income than men in 2020. This gap is three percent higher than the 15% gap observed in 1976, the earliest year for which data is available (Statistics Canada). While this Gender Pension Gap (GPG) has fluctuated over the decades, it has not narrowed.

Unfortunately, the GPG is a persistent global phenomenon. The average GPG across 34 member countries in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) was 25.6% (OECD, 2021). Domestically, a GPG can be observed in every province in Canada, with the narrowest gap in Prince Edward Island at 13% and the widest gap in Alberta at 23% in 2020 (Statistics Canada). When looking at the gap through an intersectional lens, a GPG is observed in all visible minority groups, with the narrowest gap between Japanese women and Caucasian men at 24% and the widest gap between West Asian women and Caucasian men at 64%.

Kadie Ward, Commissioner and Chief Administrative Officer of the PEO believes these findings warrant attention. “We see that the Gender Wage Gap (GWG) has narrowed with time. Meaning, women’s wages in Canada have steadily increased with time to be closer to that of men’s, although the gap has not closed completely. A natural assumption would be that with increased wages, the pension gap would also begin to close with time, but this does not appear to be the case”.

Indeed, Canada’s GWG has narrowed over the decades and women’s labour force participation has increased. As more women work and earn an income, they are also contributing financially towards their pensions. And yet, women are receiving significantly less retirement income than their male counterparts. Although the GPG is still an under-researched topic, there are several possible explanations for why the GPG persists. As pension payouts largely depend on the financial contributions of workers, deeply seated gender norms and discriminatory practices may help explain the gap. Women are more likely to work fewer years than men over the course of their careers as they exit the labour force (either temporarily or permanently) after having children, are more likely to work part-time to juggle caregiving responsibilities, and generally earn lower wages than men (the GWG). The GPG can therefore be seen as one of the compounded impacts that the GWG has on women’s long-term economic well-being.

“The impacts of the GPG should not be dismissed. Aging in poverty is linked to food insecurity, housing insecurity, and overall poor health outcomes, including higher rates of mortality. As the world commemorated International Day of Older Persons on October 1st with the theme of “Resilience and Contributions of Older Women”, there is no better time to call attention to not only the contributions of women around the world but the need for equal pay, better social protections, and shared domestic work between men and women” states Commissioner Ward.

Visit the Gender Pension Gap for more information.

Quick Facts:
• A GPG exists in Canada and has not narrowed over time. The GPG was 15% in 1976 and 18% in 2020
• The gap for private retirement income (such as workplace and personal pensions) for seniors in Canada was 28% between men and women in 2020. This means that for every $1 of private retirement income a senior man received, a senior woman received $0.72
• Women consistently receive more Old Age Security and Guaranteed Income Supplement than men in Canada. As payment is calculated based on age, marital status and level of income (as opposed to contributions during working years), this may signify that women are consistently receiving lower income during retirement years and therefore qualify for more government support
• Women in Canada are at an increased risk of living in poverty in old age. The prevalence of women who are 75 years old and over and living with low-income status was 21% compared to 13.9% of men in the same age group
• When looking at the gap through an intersectional lens, a GPG is observed in all visible minority groups, with the narrowest gap between Japanese women and Caucasian men at 24% and the widest gap between West Asian women and Caucasian men at 64%. In other words, for every $1 that a retired Caucasian man received in Canada, a retired West Asian woman in Canada received $0.36

GERMANY’S EQUAL PAY DAY CAMPAIGN 2023: THE ART OF EQUAL PAY

Submitted by ep_admin on Fri, 12/16/2022 - 05:30

GERMANY’S EQUAL PAY DAY CAMPAIGN 2023: THE ART OF EQUAL PAY

16 Dec 2022

2023’s Equal Pay Day Campaign motto is: The Art of Equal Pay. The German gender pay gap in arts and culture is at a staggering 30 percent. It shows the structural causes of the gender pay gap across society (18%) as if through a magnifying glass.

Particularly in the arts, whether performing arts, visual arts, dance, or music, we may think it is all about ability and maybe negotiating skills. These are individual challenges, right? If that were true, women would have solved the problem long ago.

Traditional role stereotypes such as men possessing greater assertiveness and willingness to take risks prevent women from taking on leadership responsibilities in areas like directing and production for example. There is also a lack of women in the management or administrative departments of cultural institutions. Only 22 percent of theaters are helmed by women.

In 2021, the overall proportion of women in German boardrooms was around 29 percent while at around 35 percent across the EU. Germany thus ranked 20th among the 27 EU member states. Women appear half as often on TV as men do. Even on children’s TV, there is only one female fantasy character for every 9 male characters. Women mostly play a role in the context of relationships and partnerships. This reinforces the prejudice that women are responsible for social issues and men for the technical sector. But women can do technology and men can do nursing!

Female soloists are underrepresented in orchestras, even in supposedly female instruments like the harp. Only 13 percent of composers are female even in concert series for contemporary music.

Becoming a mother is often the end of a female artist’s career. Like most women, female artists take on a large part of family care responsibilities. Network connections with opportunity providers are necessary for an artist’s survival but cannot be maintained due to time overload. If a female visual artist managed to become well-known and interesting to collectors, her already sold artworks diminish in value once she becomes a mother.

Women on average take on 52 percent more unpaid care work in society as a whole. During this time, they cannot be gainfully employed. This affects the wage growth throughout their lives, their career opportunities, and pensions.

Decision-makers and selection committees for grants or awards are often homogeneous in terms of gender and age – women are absent here.

The 2023 EPD Campaign aims to make a broad public aware of the economic, political, and social structures that prevent women from being as successful as men in the art market. The same structures are responsible for the gender pay gap in society as a whole. Time to change this as quickly as possible – despite all the crises!

Canada as Chair of EPIC: Highlights From the First Year

Submitted by ep_admin on Thu, 12/08/2022 - 05:30

Canada as Chair of EPIC: Highlights From the First Year

8 Dec 2022

As Canada is approaching its one-year anniversary of being Chair of the EPIC Steering Committee, I would like to highlight some of the considerable achievements accomplished by the Coalition over the last 12 months.

Being Chair of this vibrant Coalition has been an honor for Canada. I personally have numerous takeaways from events led by EPIC. The peer-to-peer exchange organised with stakeholders from Ukraine in October 2022 first comes to mind. In the context of the development of Ukraine’s National Strategy on Reducing of Gender Pay Gap, the national constituents wanted to discuss with international colleagues policy areas where advice might be needed, including possible changes to the national legislative and policy framework, best practices at the enterprise level, and addressing the challenges linked to the paid and unpaid care work. Colleagues from the United Kingdom, Switzerland and Canada shared their various perspectives on these issues. Whereas we were all cognizant of the hardship that Ukraine has been going through, this peer-to-peer event allowed us to convey our outmost respect and admiration to our Ukrainian colleagues for ensuring that equal pay remains high on the political agenda through these difficult times.

The first regional conference that took place in October in the Asia-Pacific region is also a key milestone. Stakeholders from the region discussed pay transparency measures in New Zealand, Australia, Japan and the Republic of Korea at both the public policy and company level. I would like to reiterate my invitation to stakeholders from the Asia-Pacific to consider joining EPIC in order for us to better understand the diverse perspectives in the region.

Recently, we also had a technical meeting on “Reducing gender pay inequalities in the health and care sectors through evidence-based solutions.” Looking at equal pay issues through a sectoral lens is also considerably important. This event was timely as the pandemic shed the light on the crucial importance of the health and care sector and on the need to address its gender pay gap and challenging working conditions (please see the ILO-WHO report on this issue). In addition, given that a vast majority of enterprises in this sector are Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises (MSMEs), the session highlighted that there is also a specific role that the private sector and MSMEs play, especially as principal employers of women at the low end of the wage distribution.

The role of the private sector in advancing equal pay is an avenue that Canada would like to explore further within EPIC in the coming year. Let me extend an invitation to companies and employers’ organizations from all over the world to consider becoming members of EPIC and joining their voices to the on-going discussions on equal pay. Please see the EPIC one-pager on why the private sector should join the Coalition.

In light of these great outcomes, Canada looks forward to everything we will accomplish together during the second year of our term as Chair. Let me seize this opportunity to warmly thank colleagues from the EPIC Secretariat for their support and relentless work. Our colleagues from the ILO, OECD and UN Women are working so hard behind the scene to make EPIC the successful endeavour that it is today. And their efforts combined with the engagement of EPIC’s Members bring us closer to making equal pay for work of equal value a reality for all.

Rakesh Patry, Chair, EPIC Steering Committee

Development of the National Strategy to Reduce the Gender Pay Gap in Ukraine: a peer-to-peer learning session with international experts

Submitted by ep_admin on Thu, 11/10/2022 - 05:30

Development of the National Strategy to Reduce the Gender Pay Gap in Ukraine: a peer-to-peer learning session with international experts

10 Nov 2022

Gender equality in the world of work, including equal pay for work of equal value, is a crucial boost to the sustainable development of a country and the empowerment of individuals.

As part of Ukraine’s EPIC commitments, the Government of Ukraine is working to ensure an inclusive and participatory development of the National Strategy to Reduce the Gender Pay Gap through the engagement of different stakeholders, including the representatives of governments, employer’s associations, trade unions, academia, and civil society. On 26 October 2022, a peer-to-peer learning session with international experts was organized with support of ILO and UN Women to share the recommendations and policy advice, as well as some good practices from the EPIC member states.

The learning session participants were addressed by Mr. Rakesh Party, Director General, International Affairs, Government of Canada, ESDC-Labour, Chair of EPIC, and Ms. Tetyana Berezhna, Deputy Minister of Economy of Ukraine.

“The war proves that women defend the country just as much as men: they are engaged in combat activities, they work in the economy, and continue to implement care duties. In this context, equal pay is becoming an increasingly acute issue to solve, since it is about a human right to fair compensation that should not wait until the war is over,” highlighted Ms. Berezhna.

The leading international experts, including Ms. Karen Jensen, Equal Pay Commissioner of Canada, Mr. Simon Hilber, Equal Pay Specialist, Federal Office for Gender Equality, Switzerland, Ms. Micaela Lois, International Affairs Officer, Federal Office for Gender Equality, Switzerland, and Ms. Jessica Mace, Policy Official, UK Civil Service, contributed to the discussion and experience sharing.

The discussion was focused on:
– Improvement of the national legal and policy framework in Ukraine with consideration of the experience of the EPIC member-states,
– Tools for EOs and best practices on reducing the gender pay gap at the enterprise level,
– Overcoming of gender stereotypes, ensuring women’s equal access to the workplace, including addressing the unequal distribution of household and care work, and
– Implementation of other effective mechanisms to contribute to reducing the gender pay gap in Ukraine.

Earlier in October 2022, Ukraine’s stakeholders gathered for a strategic session to identify the root causes of the gender pay gap in Ukraine. Based on this analysis and on the experience learned from international experts, the stakeholders will further convene for determining the goal, objectives and the action plan to address root causes and thus implement the National Strategy for the benefit and reflective of the perspectives of men and women.

A video of the event is available on EPIC YouTube channel.

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