Apr 16, 2024
Equal pay won’t happen without a fight
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Alberta the only province that does not enforce pay equity by law. AUPE members demand better.
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Sandra Azocar
Local 006Joyce Gow
Local 041Tessa Quinn
Local 095William MacAoud
Local 003Kristina Javorsky
Local 056Charity Hill
Local 054Josie Audet-Black
Local 057Cynthia Bill
Local 054Hitomi Suzuta
Susan Tomsics
Apr 16, 2024
Apr 03, 2023
AUPE’s Constitution sets out the duties of the Pay and Social Equity Committee as follows:
The Pay and Social Equity Committee shall:
Q: What is Pay Equity?
A: Pay equity is:
Q: Do all provinces have pay equity legislation?
A: Sadly, Alberta is one of two provinces in Canada which lacks pay equity legislation. The second is British Columbia. Employers, such as the Government of Alberta, are reluctant to even get into the debate, much less prepared to bring forward legislation to deal with this issue. Such reluctance and lack of legislation means that inequity will continue to exist. Many work sites, including the Government, are moving towards a point rating evaluation plan this allows the employer to entrench pay inequities by refusing to have equal pay for equal points. This means that if the members of one classification receive the same number of points as the members of a different classification within the same collective agreement they would receive the same compensation. However, lacking pay equity legislation means that the employer can completely ignore that and pay members as they choose.
Supporters of pay equity legislation argue that without such legislation many women would continue to be underpaid in society, and that for many of them, they and their children would continue to live at or near the poverty level. Critics of pay equity legislation argue, however, that the entire process of comparing female-dominated job categories with male-dominated job categories is too complex and expensive to be continued.
Is this the Alberta Advantage?
Q: There’s an attitude of “That’s Women’s Work” – Wazzup with that?
A: Historically women tended to work in nursing, clerical, child care, social work, etc. Typically they were thought of as temporary workers and not career minded – a holdover from the days when women were expected to leave the workforce upon marriage or childbearing. The jobs women chose were seen to reflect qualities displayed in the home, such as nurturing, healing and caring. The greater the proportion of women in an occupation, the lower the relative pay.
For example – Why are the cleaning staff in hospitals called housekeepers? They aren’t keeping house. They are keeping an institution clean healthy and safe for patients and staff. Why are the cleaning staff in schools called janitors and not housekeepers? After all they are performing comparable work only in a different institution, keeping schools clean, healthy and safe for students and staff. And why do janitors earn more than housekeepers? Traditionally janitorial work was considered male work and it’s occupation male dominated while housekeeping was considered female work and female dominated.
Unequal pay for similar work when the difference is based only on gender difference is pure discrimination.
Q: What are the stats for 2002 between Canadian women and men?
A: The statistics are staggering — in 2002 70% of employed Canadian women worked in occupations that resembled the kinds of unpaid work that they have traditionally done in the household (nurses, teachers, clerks, and sales and service occupations) compared with 30% of men (Stats Can). As we see, work traditionally done by women has been undervalued and underpaid for a variety of reasons. Pay Equity addresses this by comparing classes of jobs that are predominantly done by women with those predominantly done by men. The skill, effort, responsibility and working conditions required by the job and the working conditions of the job are evaluated and compared.
In a jurisdiction which has pay equity legislation, if any female dominated jobs in a workplace are found to be of equal or comparable value to male dominated jobs, and are found to be underpaid then all employees in those female dominated jobs are entitled to receive pay equity wage adjustment.
Q: What can Pay Inequity lead to?
A: Pay Inequity leads to increased levels of poverty, which leads to increased health care costs AND leads to increased costs for shelters and housing AND leads to increased community services costs…
Q: What can you do about this inequity? What can we do?
A: Talk about it. You can write your MLA . You can call your MLA and ask to meet for coffee and chat about pay and social equity. Discuss the issue and your concerns about the lack of legislation. You can also contact members of the opposition parties, or ask your MP and members of the federal political parties what they would suggest to enact legislation in every province. Even talk to your municipal leaders: your mayor and city councilors.
You can make a difference. We all can help to make this a better world. We are in this together! Just think about it. Then do something about it.
Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.
Margaret Mead