Canada's first pay equity legislation was enacted in 1977, however statistics proves that nowadays women are paid approximately $0.70 to the dollar when compared to men. This breach between the wage of women and men is called the 'gender wage gap'. The income of each individual should be more "From each according to his ability, to each according to his need". Not everyone knows that most women in Canada are being underpaid in comparison with the male coworkers although they probably have the same educational levels. But why would women keep earning less in the workforce?. In March 29, 1995 an article in The Toronto Star stated that the pay inequality "must be something built into either the work system or the whole labour market." Through the essay the reader is going to be able to comprehend the meaning of pay equity. It is also going to be discussed the different reasons why the wage gap exists and the common barriers. By the end of the essay the reader is going to understand the reasons why a unionized companies do have equal pay on contrary from non-unionized.
Pay equity is a basic human right, it is found on section 11 of the Canadian Human Rights Act. It refers to "equal pay for work of equal value"; it indicates under the concepts of labor rights that workers doing the same work should receive the same remuneration. With this it should be understand than in Canada there is a big difference between the meanings of pay equity and employment equity. Both terms are used with distinctly legal separate legal concepts.
In the case of pay equity, as it indicates before, means that any occupations of comparable value, based on a combination of skill, effort, responsibility, and working conditions, between men and women must be paid the same if they are working for the same employer. Pay equity could be differentiated from employment equity because it addresses the rights of female workers as groups and not individuals.