Pay Equity in Canada

Pay Equity

Definition of Pay Equity by Rand Dyck and Christopher Cochrane (in their book “Canadian Politics: Critical Approaches”) in the context of political science in Canada: An element of employment equity programs designed to ensure that all employees are paid equally for work of equal value and are not discriminated against on the basis of gender or other factors.

Definition of Pay Equity

The Canada social science dictionary [1] provides the following meaning of Pay Equity: generally refers to laws and public and corporate policies that have as their objective the elimination of pay differentials linked to gender, ethnic identity or particular minority status. Pay equity is usually concerned with correcting gender -based labour market inequality experienced by women. (In principle such policies could apply also to men, but there is little evidence of gendered disadvantage for men in the labour market.) Two issues are addressed. First, is the problem of relatively direct discrimination: women being paid less than men for the same or essentially similar work. This practice is now illegal in Canada: the law requires equal pay for equal work. Second, is a more complex problem of identifying and correcting wage inequality that results from historical undervaluation of the types of work that are dominated by women. For example, day care workers are among the worst paid in Canada, but day care work is crucial to the working of Canada’s economy. Policy makers have concluded that such examples indicate a need for an active principle of establishment of pay equity: equal pay for work of equal value. This principle allows comparison of pay rates between different types of work which are evaluated and weighted according to criteria such as skill, education, effort, working conditions. There are federal and some provincial laws mandating this form of pay equity, but there has been cautious application of them.

Pay Equity: Resources

Notes and References

1. Drislane, R., & Parkinson, G. (2016). (Concept of) Pay Equity. Online dictionary of the social sciences. Open University of Canada

Definition of Pay Equity

Pay Equity meaning or descrpition: equal pay (for women) for work of equal value (Source of this concept of Pay Equity: emp.ca/books/353-6 and emp.ca/books/330-7)

Resources

See Also

• Politics
• Political Science

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This entry was last updated: March 11, 2017