The Equal Pay Coalition’s Call For Action to Bring Pay Equity To All Ontario Women
By Mary Cornish and Michelle Dagnino
With Ontario’s 2007 election campaign just underway and Ontario moving towards the 20th Anniversary of the Pay Equity Act on January 1, 2008, the Equal Pay Coalition is calling on party leaders and candidates to commit to strengthen, revitalize and fully fund the effective enforcement of non-discriminatory pay for all Ontario women.
A. Widespread Pay Equity Non-Compliance
As 2008 draws near, most Ontario women, regardless of their occupation, age or education, continue to be paid less than men because they do women’s work. Women on average still earn only 71% of what men earn – leaving a 29% pay gap. Ontario women receive less for their work regardless of where they work in the economy, the size of their workplace or the precariousness of their work. The most vulnerable women – aboriginal woman, women of colour, racialized or immigrant women, and non-unionized women workers – face an even greater gap than the wage gap between white men and women. Retired women have much less income than men and pay inequity contributes to poverty levels.
B. Pay Equity Coalition’s Call to Action
To address this situation, the Pay Equity Coalition’s Call to Action is asking for a specific commitment to:
- Increase the minimum wage
- Fully fund pay equity adjustments that are currently owing
- Fully fund the Pay Equity Commission and Pay Equity Hearings Tribunal
1. Increasing the Minimum Wage
Women account for two-thirds of minimum wage earners. Aboriginal women, immigrant and refugee women, women with disabilities and racialized women are even more likely to be working at the minimum wage. In its campaign, the Coalition argues that increasing the minimum wage will have a significant impact on closing the gender pay gap and reducing women’s poverty. The Coalition is seeking a commitment to support increasing the minimum wage to $10 per hour effective 1 January 2008.
2. Public Sector Funding
The Coalition is calling for a commitment to fully fund significant pay equity adjustments that remain owing. The government has already identified the discriminatory pay gaps existing in broader public sector workplaces. Pursuant to a settlement to a challenge under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms in 2003, the government provided funding to cover much of the monies owing from 1999-2005 to close those gaps. However, since the end of the settlement payments in 2005, the Liberal government has failed to continue dedicated funding for pay equity adjustments that remain owing. The payments are necessary to close the identified gaps which on average will need to be paid up to 2011. According to the Coalition, as of this year, the government has failed to deliver approximately $78.1 million owing to women for their 2006-2007 adjustments. A further approximately $467.9 million is owed from 2008-2011.
3. Restoration of Commission and Tribunal Funding
The Pay Equity Commission and the Pay Equity Hearings Tribunal have had their funding and staff substantially reduced. Their funding in 2006 was about one-half of their funding in 1992-93 and the number of Commission Review Officers has been reduced from 28 to 16. The Coalition is calling for the Commission and the Tribunal to be restored to at least the 1992-93 funding level of $6.8 million. It is also asking that the government provide the further funding necessary to ensure vigorous enforcement of the Pay Equity Act and the closing of Ontario’s gender pay gap.
B. Election Campaign - Questionnaires for Leaders and Candidates
The Coalition has written to party leaders and candidates asking them to complete and return a Questionnaire which asks for their specific commitments with respect to the issues listed above. The Coalition plans to release the results of these questionnaires to the media during the election campaign. The results will also be posted on the Coalition’s website and circulated widely. In addition, the Coalition will seek to have the issue of pay equity raised in the leaders’ election debate on September 20, 2007 and at all-candidates and other election meetings across the province.
The Coalition’s call for urgent action on this issue is backed by its broad-based membership of trade unions, community and social justice organizations, and business and professional women’s organizations who represent over one million Ontarians. The Ontario Federation of Labour and many public sector unions have provided important financial and other support to the campaign. The Coalition is chaired by CHSMC’s Mary Cornish with the following other lawyers and staff providing legal and administrative support: Fay Faraday, Michelle Dagnino, Janina Fogels, Victoria Réaume, summer student Janet Borowy and Legal Assistant Wendy Balaban.
For more information on the Coalition, see the Coalition’s recently redesigned website: www.equalpaycoalition.org. If you require legal advice on implementing pay equity, please contact Mary Cornish, Fay Faraday, Victoria Réaume, Michelle Dagnino, or Janina Fogels.