Transparency should help close gender wage gap

The latest census numbers from 2016 show, unsurprisingly, that women continue to earn far less than men in Canada. That gap occurs even if women were highly educated and regardless of whether they were working in male- or female-dominated fields.

For example, the wage gap across all fields between women and men holding a bachelor degree was $13,740 in 2016.

And men working in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) occupations earned 24 per cent more than men in other fields while women in STEM occupations earned just 11.5 per cent more than other women.

That may be because the men took on work in higher-paying areas within STEM industries. But how then to explain that the gap persists even in female-dominated, specific skill-set careers such as nursing? There, men between 25 and 34 made an average of $77,698 while women in the same age range earned $75,027.

In other words, it’s becoming tougher to find excuses other than “direct sexism in the labour market” for the wage gap, says Sheila Block, senior economist at the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.

She and others have been pushing for more “pay transparency” to end the practice. One proposal, from the Toronto-based Equal Pay Coalition, would require employers to report and post hourly pay arrangements, especially for temporary, part-time and contract employees who tend more often to be female.

That kind of approach is not a bad idea. It would ensure that pay gaps are based on merit, not on a person’s sex or race.

In Norway, for example, it would be difficult to pay someone less simply because of their gender. There, every citizen’s tax return is available to be examined online.

Few people would want that to occur in Canada. But there are other ways to shine a spotlight on gender-based wage discrimination.

For example, Ontario publishes its annual “sunshine list” of provincial employees who earn more than $100,000. It can alert the government when salaries between men and women are out of whack. Indeed, a 2016 analysis by the Toronto Star found the women on the list earned an average of $124,000 while men made $130,000. And there were twice as many men as women making more than $162,000.

The figures don’t account for such factors as men's ability to negotiate better salaries, or the fact that they may be in higher ranking jobs. But they raise a red flag that should be acted on.

There are other ways to push for transparency that are less invasive. In Britain, for example, every company with 250 employees or more must publish the gap between average female and male earnings. That alone could alert women that their company is discriminating against them.

Transparency can also be achieved when companies or organizations themselves do the work -- even behind closed doors. Last year the University of Waterloo was so concerned at how much less female faculty members were paid than their male counterparts that it spent $1 million to bump up the pay of 326 female faculty members. Now it needs to root out the causes of the bias.

All this is not to say some people don't deserve to be paid more for the same work than others. But the differences should be based on merit, not gender.

Transparency on this issue should help to ensure that. Exactly how to do it may be complicated, but governments and companies need to figure it out.