Ontario’s Pay Equity Office Takes a Closer Look at Women and Skilled Trades: What’s the Trade-Off?
Employers of skilled trades workers are struggling to find the workforce required to complete their projects, causing delays and millions in lost revenue. There’s one way to address this: widen the talent pool by including more women in skilled trades. It’s been well documented and discussed that women’s lack of participation in the skilled trades is a significantly costly labour gap, considering the high labour demand across several industries.
Women entering the trades is, of course, a restructuring of our “traditional” sex-segregated labour market. Since the industrial revolution and the formation of a mass paid labour market, work was constructed through political and social policy. Through protective labour laws that only applied to women, including night work and overtime prohibitions for women, explicit bans of women working in certain industries, bans on women’s professional certifications, and marriage bars (yes, women who married were required to resign from teaching, clerical and banking), wage suppression for “women’s work,” our present sex-based clustering and compensation models are a result of policy decisions – not natural “skill and ability.”
It’s why we need policies like the Pay Equity Act, and those set out in the various Working for Workers Acts to correct structures and problems created by outdated policies from the late 1800s to early 1900s.
That brings us back to the demand for skilled trades. The most recent Ontario Building and Construction Tradeswomen (OBCT) survey found that the majority of tradeswomen see a future for themselves in the construction industry over the next two to five years.
Take construction as an example, which is one of the top industries employing skilled tradespeople across a variety of roles. According to a 2025 BuildForce Canada report, women comprise only 5% of the tradespeople employed in construction in Ontario. If employers do not want to lose out on viable workers and profits, they should reconsider century-old practices that no longer serve their sector or the reality of today’s labour market.
The Pay Equity Office has looked closely at the issues preventing women from succeeding in skilled trades. The issues are complex and varied. While some can be addressed by government intervention, others can be supported by employers who are anxious to meet their labour demand and expand their approaches to hiring.
Based on our research and observations, we have five suggestions to help address employers’ labour shortages by supporting women’s career trajectories in the skilled trades.
- Building a respectful, safe workplace: Addressing and preventing biases, sexism, and harassment on-site is a crucial component to women’s safety and sense of belonging on worksites and is now law under the Employment Standards Act anti-harassment requirements. Sexism and bias are built into several trades because of outdated policies that regulated women and men’s work. These need to be addressed. The recent OBCT survey found that over half of respondents reported experiencing harassment. Notably, 51% of respondents who experienced and reported harassment were dissatisfied with how their complaints were handled. Proactive efforts to prevent harassment are influential; staff should be provided training to understand, identify, prevent, and report harassment.
- Ensuring fair compensation: Compensation is the age-old motivation factor to attract and retain talent. Money talks, and it communicates employers’ value of specific roles and skill sets. We know that women are making less than men in the skilled trades. Providing transparent and equal pay for work of equal value can attract and motivate staff. To start the journey to pay equity, the Ontario Pay Equity Office encourages employers to visit the Pay Equity Solution for Small Business Do-It-Yourself Toolkit.
- Communicating inclusive values in job postings: Employers’ efforts to ensure staff feel included start with the language used and the supports listed in the job posting. Using inclusive language in job posts can signal to candidates your company’s values of inclusion in the workplace. Advertising supports like childcare and harassment training/policies can help employers differentiate themselves by getting ahead of the barriers female candidates face. Employers can utilize the Ontario Pay Equity Office’s Gender Neutral Job Ads resource to craft inclusive job postings.
- Showcasing clear pathways to leadership: Visible representation of women in leadership roles is critical for retaining tradeswomen. It demonstrates viable career progression. One third of tradeswomen who responded to the OBCT survey reported “gender biases in decisions” as a top barrier to advancement. Addressing biases and ensuring decisions are merit-based can help women hold leadership roles in the trades. This visibility is especially important for youth entering the trades, as seeing women in leadership roles can inspire confidence and encourage them to pursue long-term careers in the sector.
- Addressing childcare barriers and offering supports: Last but not least, offering crucial wrap-around supports for barriers such as childcare would aid women’s ability to work on-site. Over half of tradeswomen with children reported in the OBCT survey that incompatibility with childcare arrangements led to turning down work. Providing on-site childcare, with extended hours and coverage in rural areas, would be significant in addressing this barrier. If employers cannot provide these supports, they can consider offering scheduling flexibility to workers who may not be able to work extended hours due to their childcare arrangements.
The trade-off for having more women in trades is having to look at and challenge the century-old policy and social constructs that defined who does what kind of work. To build a better workforce, employers in in-demand fields can challenge outdated assumptions, policies and workplace practices to engage women in the trades as a vital and respected part of their labour force.
Visit the Ontario Pay Equity Office website to learn more: https://payequity.gov.on.ca/learn-more/