In February the federal government established a special committee on pay equity, and in June, as required by its mandate, that committee tabled a report on its findings, titled It’s Time to Act.
The second recommendation of that report is that the government take its time drafting pay equity legislation – a generous 18 months.
Recommendation #3 is that the new legislation “accept the overall direction of the 2004 Federal Pay Equity Task Force report and that the majority of the recommendations be adopted.”
So to recap: a 1956 federal law requiring equal pay didn’t close the gender wage gap. Neither did the 1977 law establishing a complaint-based system for equal pay for work of equal value. In 2016 a special committee suggests the government get around to drafting proactive legislation based on a report tabled 12 years ago that said it was time for women to be paid the same as men for work of equal value.
It’s time to act, indeed.
A resolution passed at the August 2016 meeting of CBA Council noted that female lawyers continue to earn anywhere from 15 to 25 per cent less than their male counterparts, and urged governments at all levels to “develop an action plan within one year that would include adopting substantive and meaningful pay equity legislation to eradicate the gender pay gap by 2020,” and urge law offices across the country to do the same.
In September, the CBA Pay Equity Working Group, made up of members from the Women Lawyers Forum, the Constitutional and Human Rights Law Section, Public Sector Lawyers Forum and the Canadian Corporate Counsel Association wrote to Treasury Board President Scott Brison, Employment Minister Mary Ann Mihychuk and Status of Women Minister Patty Hajdu to add their voices to the call for “urgent progress on pay equity and to encourage the federal government to take additional steps to address the factors that contribute to the gender wage gap.”
The group says it looks forward to the opportunity to offer its insights and expertise “as the legislative and policy agenda unfolds.”