Inspired by http://www.progressive-economics.ca/2009/12/08/the-supposed-plight-of-university-men/ citing http://www.canadianlabour.ca/news-room/editorial/women-workforce-still-long-way-equality
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Strikingly, the pay gap has grown rather than narrowed even as women have become more highly educated than men... Fully half of women aged 25 to 44 now have a post secondary qualification, compared to 40% of men, and the education gap is even bigger among young people. Women are participating in the paid labour force at higher levels than ever before, and very few women now drop out of paid work for very extended periods of time.
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One key reason for the gender wage gap is that women without high levels of education (or whose credentials are unrecognized in Canada) are much more likely than men to be employed in very low-paid and insecure, part-time and temporary jobs, especially in private sector sales and service jobs. More than one in five women aged 25 to 54, the peak earnings years, make less than $12 per hour, almost double the proportion of men.
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But a large and growing layer of women have indeed moved into professional and skilled technical jobs, in education, health care and other community and public services. But these women are still paid less than comparable men, and are significantly under-represented in very well-paid jobs.
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Public services employ 29% of all women compared to 17% of men (and the gap is even greater if we take account of the community social services sector.) Women have, accordingly, borne most of the impacts of privatization and contracting-out to the private sector, where wages are lower and wage gaps are much greater. Pay equity laws can make a difference, but attempts to equalize wages between male and female-dominated job classifications have generally stalled even though discrimination remains apparent.
I do believe that fair access to education is an important factor in decreasing the wage disparity that women face but clearly it's insufficent as wage disparity is increasing as women completing a post secondary education also increases. It raises the question of what needs to be done to ensure that women can recieve fair pay.
It seems that when the original CLC report was released this was already discussed here. http://rabble.ca/babble/feminism/women-still-making-less-men-report-says A bit of a non-starter with some drift. Hoping we're able to discuss the topic a bit deeper this time around.
Recommendations from the previous thread
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- Change employment standards so that full-time hours and part-time hours get paid the same when the same work is done.
- Raise the minimum wage to at least $10 an hour.
- Improve public pension plans so women, who live longer, aren't penalized for taking time away from the workforce to care for children.
- Improve access to quality and affordable child care; the report says two-thirds of women with children under the age of six are working outside the home.
A good start but I think that it fails to address the full source of wage disparity.
On top of often being paid less for similar work there is extensive gender segregation in the labour force. Regardless of attained education women seem disproportionately hired in lower paying sectors. How do we improve access for women to higher paying jobs?
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Well, to start, women account for 7% of all work place fatalities, we're far less likely to commute 40km round trip, work outdoors, work in a job we say we hate, work more than 40, 50, and 60 hours a week, less likely to transfer to regions that are rather inhospitable, (check out the male-female ratio in Alaska) and we're far more likely to change jobs in an attempt to find something that fulfills us. The 2001 US Census estimates that women, (the vast majority of whom are cis, so our mileage may vary,) earn $1.14/hour including gratuities, for every dollar earned by men of same education and experience.
You want to close the wage gap sir? I'd suggest you men refuse to be objectified for your ability to earn a living or work prestigious jobs. Lesbians earn more than straight women too, so it would seem that it's the traditional gender roles which are leading to this inequity, and it's from a material perspective, (if not the immeasurable subjective value of how much a paycheque is worth beyond its dollars and cents) more oppressive for men.
Is the fact that we've taken the gap between men's and women's lives from 1 to 7 years over the last nine decades also instance of sexism against women, or is it just evidence of what happens when we drop half the double-standard?