Pay dirt

It’s time for real salary transparency, write Craig and Marc Kielburger.

When news broke that Michelle Williams earned a fraction of what her co-star Mark Wahlberg made to reshoot scenes for the movie All the Money in the World, the response was swift. Headlines blared ‘unequal pay for equal work,’ holding it up as a shining example of the gender wage gap problem.

We’ve known about this problem for decades — so why haven’t we solved it yet?

One of our favourite business mottoes is — you cannot change what you do not measure. It applies as much to running an efficient business as it does to improving gender equity in the workplace. That’s why we’ve watched closely as companies in the United Kingdom published women’s and men’s wages in line with new transparency legislation. Unfortunately, we weren’t surprised by the results.

More than 1,000 companies treated the law like a freshman essay, waiting until the last days to submit their report. Another 1,000 didn’t submit data at all. Of those who did, eight in 10 companies owned up to paying men more than women — with some reporting a gap of more than 70 per cent.

This data is a first step to tackling the problem — and that’s where Canada has something to learn.

The most in-depth reporting of its kind anywhere in the world, the numbers reveal just how male dominated the highest — and best-paid — levels of most organizations are. “What we’re seeing is job segregation,” explains Sarah Kaplan, director of the Institute for Gender and the Economy at the Rotman School of Business. “Yes, there is a one-to-one pay gap, but there’s also a (gender) leadership gap.”

Ontario and Quebec have long had some of the strongest pay equity laws on the books. But laws don’t do much when more than half of Canadian companies flout them, according to Fay Faraday, co-chair of Ontario Equal Pay Coalition. “We have these laws but we also have widespread non-compliance,” says Faraday.

The problem is that the Canadian system is missing one vital component — pay transparency.

“It’s impossible to fight for equal pay if you don’t know what your coworkers are earning,” Faraday says.

As it stands, the onus is on employees to file a complaint to enforce their rights if they feel they are being discriminated against. For many workers, that comes with fear of reprisals.

Bucking the trend, some tech giants in Canada have begun annual self-reporting as part of the Up the Numbers initiative. Soon, they will be joined by many others as the federal government has promised to bring in pay transparency legislation, compelling companies under its jurisdiction to disclose wages. A recent poll found that nearly three-quarters of Canadians are ready for that change.

Only when companies and organizations start to monitor their hiring and salary practices seriously will we begin to move the needle and finally close the gap.

There are many steps needed to create gender equity in the workplace. Flexible working hours, better child-care policies and tackling subconscious biases in hiring and promotions will help a generation of women reach higher in their careers than those that came before them.

Salary transparency will ensure they’re paid fairly for it.