‘Gender based pay gap still exists’: the longstanding issues with workplace equality

On an international day to celebrate and recognize the achievements of women, Winnipeg experts say Canada’s track record for workplace gender equality has longstanding issues that seem difficult to shake.

“The gender-based pay gap still exists,” says Maureen Kilgour, professor in the Faculty of Business and Economics at the University of Winnipeg, on International Women’s Day.

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“We still see that women’s jobs, the work that women do primarily, are undervalued compared to the work that men do in almost all sectors.”

Despite Manitoba being the first province to have a proactive pay equity legislation decades ago, it’s remained limited in its reach, she says.

“At the time it was just limited to the public sector and a little bit beyond the public sector, like universities, hospitals … but it stalled,” Kilgour says. “So we haven’t seen any movement in a province like Manitoba on pay equity since the mid-1980s.”

According to the professor, women still have fewer opportunities for promotions, suffer negative consequences in the workplace for having children and face financial disadvantages from occupational segregation — the disproportionate representation of certain groups of people in the workplace.

The constant onslaught of setbacks creates barriers for women to advocate for themselves in professional settings.

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“Only seven per cent of women … versus 58 per cent of men, negotiated their first job offer,” says investment expert Kelly Keehn.

“Men are actually negotiating on everything four times more than women.”

The drawbacks continue even outside the workplace, she says, as data points to more women lacking control over their earnings.

“Another study was saying that 64 per cent of those women with joint bank accounts … actually felt pressured to make the decision,” says Keehn.

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Despite these obstacles, in the scope of the last ten years, there have been some instances of progress.

“We see more women in positions of leadership in organizations,” Kilgour says.

“And I think, finally, we see a lot of companies making formal public commitments to gender equality.”

Kilgour says these disparities are things men and women should be reflecting on, especially now.

“I think on this International Women’s Day, we really need to celebrate those achievements, but also really continue working on behalf of those that are there much less fortunate than ourselves here.”