Gender

Is It Time to Pay the Piper?

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This is an interesting old English expression. In today’s terms it refers to the ultimate cost of poor or self-indulgent behaviour. It seems employers around the globe have been demonstrating very poor behaviour when it comes to male and female compensation practices.

Where the pay equity issue is concerned, perhaps it is time for organizations to step up and pay the piper by way of addressing and absorbing the cost of the wage gap between men and women. Indeed, this seems to be a trend that is unfolding worldwide in various developed countries.

MacLean’s magazine released two versions of its cover in February; one for men, with a price of $8.91, and another for women, with a price of $6.99. A clever way to highlight the fact that in Canada men make 26% more in full-time wages than women.

This is a global issue. Let’s review some of the concerns around pay equity in other parts of the world:

Tesco, a UK grocery store chain is facing a 4 billion Euro pay equity law suit

The BBC is being accused of fostering a gender pay gap between its male and female reporters

Icelandic companies must now prove they are paying men and women equally, and get government certification

According to Stats Canada, Canadian working women make $0.74 cents for every dollar a man makes

The gender pay gap is a systemic issue in organizations, but that is no longer acceptable in most countries. It is time for all organizations to take an in-depth look at their compensation practices to see if there is a gender pay gap, and to assign resources to correct it.

It is high time for organizations to pay the piper, and to close the gender wage gap. The only way for them to do this is to implement and maintain a comprehensive and fair job evaluation process.

Discussion Questions:

  1. You have been asked by your VP of HR to research the job evaluation process and what it entails. Once your research is complete, you are to produce a 5-minute presentation for the board of directors focusing on the process necessary to complete a formal organizational job evaluation.

Visit the HR Council of Canada as a starting point for your research.

Wage Gap Woes

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The gender wage gap issue continues to receive much attention. On the one hand, the focus on the inequities of pay differences between male and female workers is a good thing. On the other hand, the fact that the pay gap divide continues to be an issue is exceptionally frustrating.

The differences in wages between male and female jobs, or male and female employees, is not a recent phenomenon. In Ontario, gender-based wage parity is legislated in several statutes, such as the Pay Equity Act and the Employment Standards Act. The latter, in Ontario, speaks to the requirement of equal pay for equal work. This means that a male person and a female person doing substantially the same job must be paid at the same rate for that job. Recent amendments to the Employment Standards Act (under Bill 148) identify that the words ‘substantially the same’ do not mean identical. The jobs can be similar, based on skill, effort, responsibility, and working conditions.

The Pay Equity Act of Ontario speaks directly to the issue of the value of jobs based on a gender-neutral analysis of all jobs in an organization, based on skill, effort, responsibility, and working conditions. This piece of legislation focuses on the value of jobs within an organization in order to address the inequality of employees in ‘traditionally’ male job classes being paid more than those in ‘traditionally’ female job classes.

None of this is new! The Pay Equity Act has been in place since the late 1980’s. The Employment Standards Act language referring to equal pay for equal work (prior to Bill 148) has been in place for decades as well.

Why are we still talking about this?

Apparently, not much has changed.

A recent headline, as reported by the CBC, provides an interesting view of the impact of budget-based decision-making on gender differences. The article explores a Swedish budgeting decision to clear snow-covered streets for pedestrians before clearing roads because there are more females than males who walk. The connections to wage gap parity may not be clear from the outset, but the article does explore how the Swedish model can be applied to the Canadian federal budget allocation process, based on the impact budget decisions have on female and male citizens.

Click here to read the article.

From this article we see that Canada holds a high ranking on the gender pay gap differentials. Again, this provides us with a clear indicator that the legislative approaches that are currently in place to address gender pay imbalances continue to be necessary and relevant. However, these approaches would benefit from some additional support and changes in decision-making perspectives.

Perhaps, as noted in the article, it is time to include a different approach that focuses on the impact of decisions made when preparing budgets and compensation plans.

What would happen if organizations were able to apply an impact analysis, based on gender, aligned with principles of pay equity and equal pay?

Maybe, just maybe, something might change.

 

Discussion Questions:

  1. As a Human Resources practitioner, how would you go about assessing the value of jobs using the principles of job analysis, in your current place of work?
  2. As an employee, what evidence is there to support wage parity or disparity in your current place of work?
  3. Provide an analysis that explores the pros and cons of using a decision-making process that includes gender impact, when establishing organizational budgets and/or compensation plans.

Pay Equity is Back

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Pay equity goes largely ignored.

Gender Pay Gap, 3d Illustration
Festa/Shutterstock

Pushed out of the forefront, it seems that businesses today can no longer pay males and females differently. It’s unreasonable that there is still a systemic problem in our society over equal pay for work of equal value, but the research says it’s true: women in Canada get paid 74.5 cents for every one dollar a male makes. The research also shows that our traditional reasons to justify this gap (that women have less education and work part time) does not hold water anymore.

According to a recent article in the Globe and Mail on global pay equity gaps, Canada is in the top ten of the world. This is not a good list to be top on; out of 34 countries, Canada rates seven in the world for highest percentage of wage discrepancy between the genders.

Click here to read the article.

Canada has to do better and proactively change our compensation practices. On a positive note, some provinces are aware that pay equity gaps are a problem that need to be addressed. On March 8, 2017, all parties voted unanimously to support to resolve the pay equity gap in Newfoundland and Labrador. Women in Newfoundland and Labrador earn an average of 66 cents to the male dollar of earnings.

Click here to read the article.

All organizations have to ensure they are meeting any pay equity legislation in their jurisdiction. Pay equity is closely tied to an organization’s design of their compensation system. Organizations have to ask themselves, would the design of our compensation system stand up to a pay equity due diligence test? If the organization has not completed a comprehensive job evaluation process it would be a very hard argument to defend.

Discussion Questions

  1. Please address each subsection of this question. Why is conducting job evaluations so important to
    • HR in general?
    • An organization’s compensation system?
    • Pay equity laws?
  1. What are some of the differences when conducting a general job evaluation as compared to a pay equity evaluation?

The Gender Gap Persists

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Wage gap concept with blue figure symbolizing men and red pawn women
ibreakstock/Shutterstock

It seems we still have a long way to go, baby.

A recent in-depth study, published by the Globe & Mail, provides us with the statistical reality that the wage gap between male and female Canadian workers still persists.

Click here to read the study.

It is a bit disheartening to read that the issue of wage parity between genders has been ongoing for over twenty years. It seems that we can expect it to continue for the next twenty and beyond unless Canadian employers tackle this issue from a broader economic stance.

The article looks at numerous variables: provincially, nationally and globally. Unfortunately, Canada does not do well on a global level on this issue either. There are numerous explanations and graphs in this article that show not only why the wage gap exists, but also why it continues to persist. While education and access to certain positions in the workforce have increased for women, the opportunities for continuous earnings are not available for this segment of the working population.

An explanation for the continuing gap rests on the argument that women continue to take time away from full-time earnings potential in order to take on the role of primary care-giver for their children and families. Perhaps it is time to consider the monetary value of this role and provide compensation for the woman who takes on the role of primary parent. It might provide one step forward in closing this particular gap.

Discussion Questions:

  1. What impact does the long-term wage gap, based on gender, pose for the Canadian economy?
  2. What are practical steps that a compensation manager can implement in the workplace to close the gender wage gap?
  3. Do you expect that your gender will determine your pay as you launch your career? If not, why not?

Why Job Evaluation Matters

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Workplace Gender Equality in a Business or Career
kentoh/Shutterstock

True confessions: As a female HR practitioner, I should not be surprised by the fact that women continue to be underpaid and undervalued in today’s workforce, but I am. Wage parity between male and female workers has been problematic for far too long. Unfortunately, this problem of wage inequity continues to be an issue in workplaces across the globe. As noted in a recent article providing an international perspective, the wage gap difference between male and female workers does not seem to be resolving itself any time soon.

Click here to read the article.

Q: What is the answer to this seemingly never-ending problem?

A: Job Evaluation.

Very simply, job evaluation offers any employer a tool, a methodology and a path to creating job equity using gender-neutral point systems that measure the value of work within any organization. While many employers in Ontario may balk at the implementation costs related to these systems, at the end of a job evaluation review, the employer can rely on a process that counter-acts systemic gender-based wage discrimination.

True job evaluation systems allow for the neutral review, measurement, assessment, examination and evaluation of work performed regardless of who is doing the work. Job evaluation should eliminate (or at least reduce) the need for a female worker to put herself through the rigors of demanding to be paid equally for work that her male counterparts are performing. If the system works, it will work for everyone, male and female alike.

The push for this change for wage parity started decades ago.

It’s time to make it happen.

Discussion Questions:

  1. In your opinion, why are employers resistant to implementing job evaluation systems voluntarily?
  2. What are the benefits to an employer of maintaining wage inequality between male and female workers?
  3. If you had to fight for a wage increase based on gender inequality – what steps would you take to make it happen?