British Columbia Federation of Labour

Tuesday, November 01, 1988

Pay equity is a process to achieve the goal of fair wages for all workers, by eliminating the wage gaps between men and women workers. It requires that dissimilar jobs of relatively equal worth to the employer be paid the same wages. Pay equity is simply a gender-neutral pay program or process which diminishes wage inequity.

The labour movement has attempted to respond to wage inequities through collective bargaining, negotiating job evaluation plans and by lobbying governments. Some unions such as the International Typographical Union have had equal pay for work of equal value recognized in their contracts since before the turn of the century. But the first step in the labour movement's campaign to deal with wage inequities was the concept of equal pay for equal work mounted in the early 1970s. This resulted in elimination of some wage increments and some integration of seniority lists, but the wage gap remains because few women do exactly the same work as men.

The B.C. Federation of Labour adopted the concept of equal pay for work of equal value in 1980, and various successes in implementing the concept were reported by affiliates before wage controls, privatization efforts and Bill 19 were introduced. The reality of fighting to maintain past gains has made pay equity a goal yet to be realized.

In March 1988, the Federation adopted, in principle, a working model pay equity bill drafted by representatives from all the major unions with a large number of women members. This policy paper is before Convention to ensure the support of affiliates for the province-wide lobby which will be necessary to make legislation and pay equity a reality.

Pay equity must be adopted as a bargaining strategy for unions and also enshrined in legislation. The two approaches are intertwined because legislation will provide an incentive to employers to bargain pay equity with unions as well as extending some protection to unorganized workers. Unions which are successful in bargaining pay equity will raise community standards for both organized and unorganized workers. With strong legislation and full unionization, women can and will achieve real pay equity.

Recommendations

1. Organize the unorganized by encouraging affiliates to jointly target sectors where women workers are concentrated;

2. Encourage unions to negotiate pay equity provisions in collective bargaining;

3. Form a community/labour coalition to educate and lobby for pay equity legislation using the working model adopted in principle by the B.C. Federation of Labour in the spring of 1988; and

4. Continue to lobby for an increase in the minimum wage and its universal application.

Why We Need Pay Equity

The only pieces of legislation in BC which presently attempt to address inequities between men and women are the Human Rights Act (BC) and the federal Human Rights Code, which are woefully inadequate to address the historical wage gap. In addition, wage controls, privatization, deregulation and the "Mulroney trade deal" have, and will continue, to perpetuate the wage gap. To continue maximizing profits, employers and governments place little emphasis on pay equity.

It is up to unions to address these inequities and to ensure that the working lives of women are no longer sacrificed to profit. One of the most important steps toward achieving pay equity is the unionization of those sectors of the workforce where women workers are concentrated. Studies have shown that unionized women workers in the service sector in Canada earn an average of $277 per week, compared with unorganized women who earn an average of $153 per week or 45 percent less (1987 Statistics Canada).

Statistics tell us that women earn 64 cents for each dollar earned by men. The cost of the wage gap to women is staggering both in terms of real wages and future considerations such as pension levels. Since the vast majority of single parents are women, and a large number of them work at minimum wages, their children are also victims of lower standards of living.

The aim of pay equity is to eliminate the wage gap. It will help protect all workers by defending against job de-skilling brought about by technological change. It will reduce poverty, begin to correct the inequities of the market system and give women more economic control over their lives. It will also help to legitimize the value of "women's work" and ensure for women, their rightful place as full partners in our society.

History

Equal pay for work of equal value was a founding principle of the League of Nations in 1919. In 1951, the International Labour Organization passed Convention 100 mandating equal value legislation. Twenty years later, (1972), Canada ratified this Convention. The United Nations recognized equal pay for work of equal value as one of the basic human rights in the "Convention of the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women". This was ratified by Canada in 1981. The concept of equal pay for work of equal value now applies to about 10 percent of the Canadian workforce ?those under federal legislation. Provinces are obligated by the United Nations Convenant to establish provincial legislation which parallels the federal legislation. Unfortunately, British Columbia lags behind other jurisdictions (Ontario, Manitoba, Prince Edward Island, Quebec, Newfoundland and Nova Scotia) in implementing any legislation.

Even with affirmative action and equal pay for work of equal value programs, women are still concentrated in the health, hospitality, service and education sectors in jobs which are undervalued and underpaid. Employers still encourage the perception that these tasks are extensions of traditional female roles and therefore should be paid less. Historically we see that as more women moved into an occupation, the relative wages decreased.

In our society, employers are driven to maximize their profits which is done by holding down costs. Labour costs are continually attacked by employers and governments. In the past, women were viewed as marginal participants in the labour force, pushed out when not needed and brought in when circumstances demanded. The most blatant example of this process was at the end of World War II when thousands of men returned home looking for work. While women today are no longer a "secondary" workforce, employers still use that argument to justify their continued financial exploitation of women.

The employer's arguments against pay equity are many. They argue that the market determines wages. But, as we know, the marketplace is discriminatory and it becomes a convenient altar upon which many needs are sacrificed. They also say that the concept of pay equity will ruin collective bargaining and the economy or that the cost of achieving pay equity will put them out of business and their employees out of work. The fact is that predictions of economic chaos have always been made in the face of demands for social advancement whether it was the abolition of child labour or the introduction of pensions. Yet in Europe, and in other jurisdictions such as Australia and Minnesota, where the wage gap has been narrowed, these predictions have been proven false. Women's wages have been, or are being, increased without detriment to male co-workers and at a minimal cost of five percent of the payroll. Small businesses have not gone broke, women have not been forced to leave the workforce and there has been no mass exodus of businesses from the jurisdiction. Rather, there has been a systematic approach to recognizing the value of work previously undervalued.

Labour's Approach

Women who belong to unions are much better off than those women working in the unorganized sector. Through bargaining, unions have been able to eliminate many of the barriers to equality which face women. Yet although the wages and benefits are better in a union, the wage gap has not entirely disappeared.

To achieve pay equity, there must be a three-prongs approach:

1. We must organize the unorganized as a priority;

2. Pay equity must be adopted by unions as a major bargaining strategy; and

3. We must press for pay equity and adequate minimum wage legislation to cover all workers.

Pay equity must become an issue within unions before collective bargaining begins. There are many ways to make pay equity an issues among the membership. Examples are:

1. Educate the members about the concept of pay equity and its goal of redressing historical inequities;

2. Encourage members to discuss and recognize the value of all the skills used in their job;

3. Ensure all workers understand each other's work and working conditions;

4. Ensure all workers understand that no group will suffer financially in order to implement pay equity;

5. Make pay equity an issue with the employer; and

6. Discuss the concept of apprenticeship programs and accreditation for work traditionally done by women.

Some examples of collective bargaining strategies to achieve pay equity are:

1. Equalize base or entry level rates;

2. Eliminate increment and merit steps;

3. Negotiate jointly-controlled gender-neutral job evaluation plans;

4. Negotiate increases for pay equity which are separate and in addition to general wage increases;

5. Negotiation uniform wage scales which can easily be compared between classifications;

6. Review seniority provisions (ie., consider employer-wide seniority);

7. Negotiate equal treatment of part-time and temporary workers to prevent employers from employing them more cheaply than full-time workers and ensure access to unionization;

8. Reduce number of job classifications or categories;

9. Negotiate across-the-board increases rather than percentage increases;

10. Negotiate retraining provisions for workers displaced by technological change; and

11. Negotiate other equality provisions for women (ie., paid maternity leave, paid parental leave, childcare and pensions).

Organizing

As a Federation, for joint organizing campaigns we must target those sectors where women predominate. As an issue of social conscience, we must encourage unions to work together to organize these largely unorganized groups.

Legislation

While unions strive to reduce the wage gap between men and women, we must remember that approximately 68 percent of all women workers in BC are unorganized. We must strive to increase our awareness of the feminization of poverty. This can be done by sharing our goals and working with the community to achieve these and other related goals such as an increase in the minimum wage.

We should be instrumental in forming a community/labour coalition to lobby for pay equity in British Columbia.

In our view, legislation must be pro-active in that it sets standards all employers must meet and provides for government monitoring to ensure compliancy. It must include the following:

1. Coverage for all women workers;

2. Compulsory participation by employers;

3. Provision for collective bargaining of pay equity where workers are organized;

4. Provision for adequate enforcement mechanisms and sufficient staff to be available for ongoing monitoring and levying of penalties;

5. Recognition of the differences in workplaces by providing a variety of methods to attain pay equity;

6. A widespread educational program as an integral part of the program;

7. Coverage for all forms of compensation, including benefits, vacations, etc.;

8. A statement that sex must not be a factor in justifying differences in wages or benefits;

9. A statement that wages or benefits of one group of employees must not be capped or reduced in order to provide another group with pay equity; and

10. Strict short-term time limits.

Adopted in Convention 1988

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