Pay Equity: The Federal government MUST take action! | Public Service Alliance of Canada

Thirty years after the adoption of the Canadian Human Rights Act, pay equity is still only a dream for most women in Canada.Despite the fact that the Pay Equity Task Force recommended the adoption of a stand-alone proactive pay equity law, the federal government has done nothing.

We encourage you to use the PSAC template letter to write your MP, and ask them what they are doing about this situation. If you can, personalize your letter: do you have a specific experience with pay equity? If you received pay equity adjustments, how did it make a difference to you? If you are still waiting for a complaint to be heard or a case to be heard in court, tell your MP how you feel about this.

Your action counts! Together, we can put pay equity back on the agenda!

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The Message:

Member of Parliament
House of Commons
Ottawa ON K1A 0A6

Dear,

Thirty years ago, the federal government passed a law making it illegal to discriminate against women in the workplace. Section 11 of the Canadian Human Rights Act specifically provides for equal pay for work of equal value, or pay equity.

In spite of this law, the wage gap between women and men is growing. In the mid-1990s women used to earn 72 cents for every dollar earned by a man. As of 2005, that was down to 70.5 cents. And, this can’t be blamed on education. University-educated women are only making 68 cents compared to a university-educated man’s dollar. We’re going backwards!

My union’s experience with the current law is that it can make a difference eventually but it takes literally decades for it to happen. It took from 1984 to 1999 before a complaint covering our members at Treasury Board was finally resolved. Our members at Canada Post filed their complaint in 1983 and their case is now going to the Federal Court of Appeal. It’s still not over after all this time. It shouldn’t take so long and be so difficult and expensive for women to receive the pay equity they’re entitled to by law.

I would like to know what actions you and your party are going to take to fix this problem. It has been five years since a federal pay equity task force produced a comprehensive report that said a new, proactive law was needed. What do we have to show for it? Nothing. Why should women continue to be underpaid because the law we have can’t or won’t be enforced? I want to know what you and your party intend to do about this and when.

Your support for new legislation will be appreciated.

Sincerely,

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