Gender Pay Equity in Canada from 1971 to 2016: An Empirical Analysis
This article examines the theme of gender pay equity in Canada. As a first step, using public-use microdata from the 2016 census, it compares the wages of men and women globally and then using the intermediate variables of age, industry sector, education and work status depending on whether it is full-time or part-time. It thus discovers an inequality of pay according to sex although as well, paradoxically, a small variance in wages explained by gender. In a second step, it presents this comparison in the light of those made since 1971, all of which are based on census microdata. It observes a general trend towards reducing the gender gap in wages, but also towards reducing the variance explained in wages by gender; it also observes some stagnation in the reduction of the gap between 2011 and 2016. In a third step, it examines the difference in wages between genders, but according to salary brackets, revealing a clear variation in this difference according to the salary bracket that is taken into account. Fourthly, it lays out some legislative considerations.