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The Problem:
More than 25 years the adoption of the Canadian Human Rights Act, women working full-time still earn 71% of men’s salaries, regardless of our age, occupation or education.
For women of colour, Aboriginal women and women with a disability, the wage gap is even greater.
The pay equity provisions in the Canada Human Rights Act are just not working! And the government has shelved the comprehensive Task Force report that tells them what to do about it.
 Pay Equity Info Sheet [PDF]
The Pay Equity Task Force Report
The federal government appointed a Pay Equity Task Force that issued its Report in the May 2004. The Report recommends adopting a new, stand-alone pay equity law that will cover women, as well as workers of colour, Aboriginal workers and workers with disabilities.
Although the Task Force recommendations are good news for women, they have not yet been implemented.
NAWL's Brief to The Pay Equity Task Force
NAWL's Recommendations on Pay Equity [PDF]
Pay Equity Task Force Report
Pay Equity Network Campaign:
In 2005, a number of women’s organizations, provincial pay equity coalitions and the Canadian Labour Congress have formed a Network to pressure the federal government to take steps towards implementing this report. More than 200 women’s groups, labour unions and community organizations signed on to the Network’s Call to Action on Pay Equity.
On February 14th 2005, NAWL and the Pay Equity Network sent a Valentine’s Day card to every MP and Senator to remind them that Pay Equity is at the Heart of Equality
Workshop on Pay Equity:
In the spring of 2005, NAWL began a series of popular legal education workshops around women’s equality in the workforce and the federal pay equity system. Our goal: to share information with women’s organizations about the current pay equity framework, to learn from women’s experiences, and to mobilize different communities to lobby the federal government.
Workshop Material on Pay Equity
(Link coming soon!)
Supreme Court Decision on NAPE:
On October 24, 2004, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that because of an alleged impending ‘fiscal crisis’, the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador had the right to back out of an agreement to correct discriminatory wages for women health care workers.
This amounts to a special tax on Newfoundland women!
NAWL, in collaboration with the Newfoundland Advisory Council on the Status of Women, the Feminist Alliance for International Action (FAFIA) and the Canadian Research Institute for the Advancement of Women (CRIAW) initiated a pan-Canadian campaign to protest. We urged then Prime Minister Paul Martin and Premier Danny Williams to pay back $80 million that is owed to women health care workers.
More than a 100 women’s groups, trade unions and other equality-seeking groups signed on to letters to then Prime Minister Paul Martin and Premier Danny Williams. The letters were delivered on December 10, 2004, the anniversary of the adoption of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Winter 2006
”Government Inaction on Pay Equity”, by Andrée Côté
Spring 2005
“Balancing Budgets on the backs of women: Pay Equity Post-NAPE”, by Suzanne Bouclin
Spring 2005
“At the heart of human rights: the campaign or a pay equity law”, by Patricia Harewood
Fall 2004
“Pay Attention to Pay Inequity”, by Patricia Harewood
Fall 2002
“Pay Equity: Required Changes in Federal Jurisdictions”, by Louise Aucoin
Summer 2002
“The Struggle for Pay Equity in New Brunswick”, by Louise Aucoin (speaking notes)
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