OSPE - The Voice - September 2017 - 37
careerS
emanuela Heyninck, Commissioner
of Ontario's pay equity Commission
Of particular note to professional women, it appears the gender wage gap is wider
in male-dominated fields where women are attempting to make inroads. OSPE's 2015
report, Crisis in Ontario's Engineering Labour Market, noted that women uniformly
earned less than men in the same job categories. Based on data from the 2011 National
Household Survey, for civil, mechanical, electrical, and chemical engineering, women
earned 16 per cent less than their male counterparts. For other types of engineers,
earnings were 15 per cent lower, and 17 lower per cent for engineering managers.
In the town hall meetings and in the surveys, the Committee heard many stories
about workplace environments that are overtly hostile to the presence of women,
or where women's participation and contributions are minimized or ignored.
The Steering Committee concluded that a comprehensive strategy was necessary
and that co-ordinated action by governments, businesses, unions and individuals
was necessary if the gap was to be closed.
Their 20 recommendations addressed balancing work and caregiving
responsibilities, the means to value work through changes to current legislation
aimed at redressing gender discrimination in compensation, addressing workplace
practices through analytics and reporting, challenging gender stereotypes in
education, and setting out actions specific to government to close the gap through
its contracting processes and introducing gender budgeting.
The recommendations reflect the submissions the Committee received during
the consultation process, including that of OSPE. To the question "Do the current
laws (pay equity, equal pay for equal work, human rights) protect women from
gender-related workplace discrimination and harassment?" OSPE responded that
"...legislation is useful for gross abuses,
but many inequities are subtle."
Organizations like OSPE play a vital role
in addressing the barriers faced by women
in the engineering profession through
research and information sharing about
ways to improve their workplace cultures
and practices.
a wOrd abOuT The rOle OF
Pay equITy In addressInG The
Gender waGe GaP
Compensation discrimination can be
addressed in two ways:
1) the requirement that men and women
receive equal pay for equal work
2) the requirement that women receive
equal pay for work of equal value to
men (known as pay equity)
In Ontario, equal pay for equal work and
pay equity are found in two pieces of
legislation, the Employment Standards
Act and the Pay Equity Act.
Equal Pay For Equal Work
* Is enforced by the Employment Standards
Branch of the Ministry of Labour
* Has been in existence in its current form
since the 1970s and is complaint-based
* Research shows that equal pay for
equal work continues to be a significant
problem that may not be recognized
because complaints of contravention of
this requirement to the Ministry are low
* Equal pay for equal work is a particularly
important remedy for women working
in male-dominated sectors
Pay Equity
* Is enforced by the Pay Equity Office
* Has been a legal requirement since 1987
* The Pay Equity Act applies to all
employers in the public and private
sectors, except for private sector
employers with less than 10 employees
* Employers must identify gender
bias in compensation systems, using
recognized compensation comparison
techniques and to correct it by
adjusting wages of employees in femaledominated jobs so that their wages are
at least equal to comparable male jobs
* Compliance with pay equity is an
ongoing employer obligation that is not
triggered by a complaint - enforcement
by the Pay Equity Office is carried out by
investigating complaints and through
its pro-active monitoring activities
FuTure COnsIderaTIOns
The gender wage gap strategy
development process and the 30th
September 2017
The VOICe
37
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OSPE - The Voice - September 2017 - Cover1
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OSPE - The Voice - September 2017 - 3
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