Equal Pay For Equal Work

Despite increasing awareness, the gender pay gap has yet to close. In 2018, women still earned about eighty cents for every dollar men did, and that number changes when factoring in a woman's education level, profession, and ethnicity. These articles explore the discussion surrounding the gender pay gap, and highlight how our understanding of it has evolved in the past decade. Beginning with Obama's signing of the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act in his first weeks as president and leading to some of the complicated economics of paid family leave, these articles explore the factors that create a gender pay gap and point to possible solutions.

This document provides some historical factors relating to equal pay. It discusses value and equity, equal pay since 1970, the pay equity programmes, job evaluation, issues arising from pay equity, and alternatives.

In order to determine whether methods of job analysis and classification currently used are biased by traditional sex stereotypes or other factors, a committee assessed formal systems of job evaluation and other methods currently employed in the private and public sectors for establishing the comparability of jobs and their levels of compensation. A review of sociological and economic literature shows that some differences in the characteristics of workers and in jobs do form a legitimate basis for wage differentials. Nevertheless, there exists a pervasiveness of occupational and job segregation by sex. Given the current operation of the labor market and the existence of a variety of factors that permit the persistence of earning differentials between men and women (e.g., labor market segmentation, job segregation, and employment practices), it would seem that intentional and unintentional discriminatory elements enter into the determination of wages and are not likely to disappear. Use of a job evaluation system is one possible remedy to this situation. While the subjectivity of job evaluation makes job evaluations less than perfect vehicles for resolving pay disputes, they can serve to identify potential wage discrimination. (MN)

Despite big societal changes, and many labour market, educational and public policy initiatives, women are still paid less than men. This report presents the first stocktaking of pay transparency tools across OECD countries and explores how such policies can help level the playing field for women and men at work.

This is the report of a task force whose basic objective was to conduct a comprehensive review of the current equal pay provisions of the Canadian Human Rights Act, section 11, as well as the Equal Wages Guidelines of 1986. Work of the task force included consultations, public hearings, roundtables, private meetings, research, and a symposium to provide information about the wide range of issues relevant to a review of pay equity legislation. The first four chapters review wage inequalities in Canada & within designated groups in the labour market, the Canadian legislative response to wage inequality, the current pay equity model and its limitations, and proactive models & legislation in the public sectors of various provinces. Chapter 5 outlines a model that the task force recommends to replace the current legislation. Subsequent chapters address issues which arise in connection with this proposed model, including the scope of application, the elements of a pay equity plan, employee participation, predominance of certain groups in job classes, evaluating gender-predominant job classes, estimating & correcting wage gaps, allowable exemptions, maintenance of pay equity, enforcement, timelines & transition to new legislation, pay equity and collective bargaining, and the role of oversight agencies. Recommendations made throughout the report are also listed at the end. Appendices include excerpts from relevant legislation.

Labour administration pub. Working paper on legal aspects of wage policy implementing equal pay for work of comparable worth for woman workers in Canada - describes the historical role of ILO in establishing the principle as an international labour standard; comments on the development of labour legislation; notes obstacles to the application of the Human Rights Act, especially management attitudes. Bibliography.