QUESTION PERIOD — Employment and Social Development
Pay Equity
April 16, 2024
Senator Gold, more than four decades ago, on April 17, 1982, Queen Elizabeth II signed into law the Constitution Act, 1982, with its entrenched Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, including equality rights set out in sections 15 and 28.
A new report from the World Bank found that while 98 countries enacted equal pay laws, there were measures in place to meaningfully reduce the pay gap in only 35 of those countries. Less than 40% of the measures necessary to implement equal pay laws have actually been put in place. As a result, globally, women continue to earn, on average, 77 cents to the male dollar.
In Canada, a pay gap persists between men and women, fluctuating from 9% for Canadian-born, non-Indigenous women; over 10% for immigrant women; and more than 20% for Indigenous women. Studies indicate that —
I’m sorry. That’s the time, Senator McPhedran.
Regrettably, I don’t have the ability to act in response to the question except to underline the importance of not only narrowing the gap, such as you described, but eliminating the gap. We are now in a position in our country — I think and I hope — where there is no question that inequality and inequity with regard to employment remuneration for men and women and those others who may identify themselves differently have no place in our society.
Thank you very much. That was an excellent anticipatory response. I appreciate it.
The other thing that the World Bank report found was that there was an absence of child care safety policies. Even with the very welcome announcements for affordable child care in this country, I ask what the government is doing now to put in place child care safety policies to make those affordable child care situations more reliable for working women in Canada.
Thank you for the question and for underlining the importance of that. I’m not in a position to comment on what arrangements may have been made in the first round of agreements with the provinces, but I do appreciate the question that you have asked and the importance of the issue.
