It’s finally here. April 7 is Equal Pay Day in Canada
April 7, 2021 is the day the average Canadian female worker’s earnings since Jan. 1, 2020 match their male co-worker’s earnings for the 2020 calendar year. You read that correctly. On average, it takes Canadian women an extra three months and seven days to earn what the average Canadian male made in a year doing similar work.
The numbers don’t lie, and they are appalling.
Today – in 2021 – women overall make 75¢ for every dollar made by men. That gap is even wider for women who fall into the marginalized groups.
According to the Canadian Women’s Foundation, the following is how, on average, different women fare compared to white men born in Canada:
- Indigenous women make $0.65 for every dollar,
- women living with a disability earn $0.54,
- racialized women make $0.67, and
- women who are new to Canada make $0.71 compared to men who are also new to Canada.
Wage discrimination is real.
Equal work deserves equal pay.
It’s common sense.