Niagara Region must address gender pay gap

Re: Public health nurses strike looms, Aug. 23

Niagara Regional Chair Alan Caslin recently commented that gender is not a factor in contract talks with 161 registered nurses (RNs) and nurse practitioners (NPs) who work for the Regional Municipality of Niagara Public Health Unit.

The Ontario Nurses Association, in a press release on Monday, Aug. 21, stated that the Region’s offer is lower than that “offered to its male-dominated police force and less than what was offered to hospital, nursing home and Community Care Access Centre nurses.”

They’ve asked the Region to consider this disparity in talks with the mostly female public health nurses.

In contract negotiations and in the broader labour market, gender is a constant and persistent variable. The International Monetary Fund recently noted that Canada’s gender wage gap is above the OECD average. According to the Equal Pay Coalition, the gender pay gap in Ontario is 30 per cent, and this gap has hardly moved since the late 1980s.

Put more starkly, if a man retires today at 65, a woman would have to keep working until aged 79 to leave with the same earnings. The gender pay gap is considerably larger for racialized, immigrant and Indigenous women.

And it remains significant in professions that are female dominated, particularly in professions associated with caregiving.

Pay equity legislation has mitigated some effects but has been marred by enforcement challenges, complicated proxy formulas, and at various times, an absence of political will.

While gender is often not considered an explicit variable in contract negotiations, it inflects and flavours them. In a period when Canada faces an escalating care crisis associated in part with an aging population, pressure on public sector services and providers — among them nurses, police services and first responders — is likely to grow.

Investments in social service architecture — including especially in skilled professional work associated with community health and care — can have the effect of decreasing costs in other areas.

Attending to gender equity in contract negotiations is an important undertaking; Niagara is well positioned to be a leader in such considerations by addressing the gender wage gap under its purview.

Kate Bezanson, PhD, Chair and associate professor, sociology, Brock University

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