Gender pay gap still exists for new grads, StatsCan finds
Delay in pay transparency legislation could make inequity worse, advocates say
A brother and sister graduate with similar degrees from the same university at the same time. The tough truth about what they’ll make might be an eyeopener to them and their parents, but not to advocates who’ve long fought for equal pay for women. Chances are good the young man will be paid more than the young woman after their first two years on the job, just-released statistics show in a report that suggests Canada’s gender pay gap is alive and well even among newlyminted graduates, not just people with time under their belt in the workforce.
Between 2010 to 2014, men with college diplomas or undergraduate degrees earned a higher median income than women with the same education, a recent Statistics Canada report has found.
For graduates of diploma programs, the median income two years after graduation was $43,900 for men and $36,200 for women.
For men graduating with undergraduate degrees, the median employment income after two years in the workforce was $47,200, $5,900 or 14 per cent more than women with the same education level.
The figures indicate pay disparity between genders remains a key issue in the younger workforce — despite decades of activism to close the pay gap — as it did among generations of older workers. “Women are more educated than ever,” said Zindzi Makinde of the Canadian Federation of University Women, a national group that’s worked for nearly 100 years to improve the status of women. “They are more present in the workforce than ever and they are given more opportunities than ever and yet this discrimination still occurs.”
The report found college and university graduates who studied health, architecture or engineering make the most money — but even there, the gender wage gap remains.
For 2014, college graduates who studied health, the median income two years after graduation was $50,500 for men and $44,000 for women. Male college-level architecture and engineering graduates earned $48,900 while female graduates in the same field earned $41,100.
Women who graduated with undergraduate degrees in architecture or engineering had a median employment income of $55,900. For male graduates in the same fields of study, it was $61,000. The latest report exposes a nasty reality for women in the labour force, said Fay Faraday, human rights lawyer and co-chair of the Equal Pay Coalition, an umbrella group for trade unions, women’s and businesswomen’s groups and others trying to end gender pay discrimination.
“It’s not just that there’s a gap at every level of education,” Faraday said of the pay differences. “It’s that women start with lower earnings … and that their wages go up much more slowly. The gap grows as women progress.” Faraday said it’s the perfect time to reflect on the findings of this report, especially since Ontario’s Progressive Conservative government is delaying bringing in pay transparency legislation passed by the former Liberal government. Among other policies, the law would require all public job postings to include salary information and ban employers from asking job applicants about previous wages. “(The delay) is going to entrench this discriminatory pay gap that’s reflected here,” Faraday said. “It has been against the law since the 1950s to pay women less than men if they’re doing the same work … and yet these pay gaps have persisted and the reason is because there is widespread noncompliance and the lack of pay transparency makes it impossible for women to enforce their rights.” During the four-year period surveyed by Statistics Canada, which crunched the numbers from data including taxes, more than 900,000 students younger than age 35 graduated from postsecondary schools. Employment income is influenced by a number of factors including a graduate’s field of study, occupation after graduation and hours of work, the federal agency said.
The study was unable to distinguish if the graduates’ employment was related to their field of study at college or university. Median income was calculated in 2016 dollars and didn’t control for full- or part-time employment. The study results aren’t surprising, Western University earth sciences student Damla Alper said. “Obviously, we wish it was different,” the third-year student said. “On a small scale, I don’t think there’s a whole lot that individual women can do.”
Jack Hostrawser, in his second year in earth sciences, said it can be tough for recent graduates — men or women — to assert themselves in wage negotiations when they look for work.
He said he hopes old ways of thinking and gender-based assumptions will be phased out of the workplace as a younger generation rises into leadership roles. “These attitudes tend to stick around,” he said. “I think it’s important we’re discussing this,” he said, noting “the people running companies may be reluctant to change their world view if they grew up a certain way.” While hard data helps to spotlight the wage gap, advancing pay equity is a bigger fight, Makinde said.
“While it’s important that the issue of pay inequity is being recognized, it is certainly disheartening to see how little progress has occurred,” she said. “This disparity proves that there are still systemic barriers within society that don’t allow women and girls to reach their full potential.”
It’s that women start with lower earnings … and that their wages go up much more slowly.