Wage Discrimination in Canada
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Introduction/Summary
What is wage discrimination?
Wage discrimination is the prejudicial and unfair treatment specifically in the payment of wages towards minority groups. It occurs when workers with the exact same position receive different wages based on components like race, sex, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or other ascribed characteristics. These workers that are subject to wage discrimination are earning lower wages in a given job and assigned to low-wage jobs within firms. Wage discrimination has the pattern of findings individuals with equivalent educational qualifications and background. As most of these wage discriminations are likely to be seen in lower-paying positions which involve minority groups who are less capable of fighting back or complain (Howland, 1993). An example of the wage discrimination would be when an employer offers a lower wage for a woman doing similar work as a man or offers a lower wage to new immigrant having similar experience/skills as a non-immigrant.
Different Types of Wage Discrimination
The wage discrimination, also known as occupational segregation can be caused by various components. Each pertains prejudicial and unfair treatment to the minority groups that are faced with decreased wage income and much more. These are some of the major ones:
Gender
There has been a huge wage gap between women and men in the workplace for many years now.The earnings between the two genders can be seen as it exists to an extent in almost every country in the world. Due to the influx of women workers into the workforce after world war II, the percentage of working women has risen significantly. In the past 30 years, Canada has seen an increased from about 42% to almost 60% of women in the labor force; however, the government and employers have responded to the change quite slowly. Based on Canadian Women's Foundation, "out of 34 countries in the OECD, Canada had the 7th highest gender wage gap in 2014." This discrimination results in a variety of factors. The traditional "women's work" pays less than the traditional "men's work". Most female-dominated occupations are seen as less skillful due to the history of women working in domestic-related jobs. Also, more women work in part-time than men which increases the gap between the two. Women are more likely to work part-time because of the lack of affordable childcare and the gender roles to continue the domestic responsibilities (Rodas, 2017). We used these repeated acts and make it a natural act and norm even though what we based off of are completely based from “theory” and disciplinary traditions that tells us to (Butler, 1990).
Race
Race has been a sensitive topic as it has impacted so many areas and continues to have an effect on wage segregation. Based on findings between black and white workers in the Canadian economy, the average employment income of black workers was $40,179 in 2005, while the average for Canadian workers was at $51,221. The $11,000 earning gap is due to the disproportionate percentage of Blacks found in lower-skilled and paid occupations. Furthermore, blacks have been under-represented in many highly skilled and well-paying occupations. A 2006 Canadian census reveals that only 7.7% of full-time black workers were employers and managers, in contrast to the 13.3% of all workers. Canada has a wide range of policies such as Canadian Human rights act that tries to deal with the issue of discrimination and inequality in the labor market. However, the lower rates of education and training have been a big factor in creating the earning gap between black and white employees (Wald, 2011).
Immigration
Immigration has been a large component of what makes Canada. As Canada is seen as the multicultural nation, discriminations with immigration are still seen. Many skilled immigrants in Canada struggle in the labor market as they face substantially higher levels of unemployment and lower wages when compared with the non-immigrants (Kampelmann, 2016). Researchers found that job opportunities in Canada have an increased call-back rate for foreign individuals but still lower than local or American applicants. Many employers discriminate immigrants immediately through the names, even among the applicants who has undergraduate degrees and other work experiences. For example, employers may make assumptions about a job applicant’s communicating or language skills based on the applicant's name if it sounds Indian, Chinese, or Pakistani. Many employers also choose their applicants based on the candidate’s country of education, type of work experience, etc. (Oreopoulos, 2011). Employers can simply reduce the discrimination by covering up the names of the applicants to help them make unbiased callback decisions.
Why It Matters
These discriminations matter because it is impacting a lot of individuals all over the world. These impacts are big enough to affect how people live their lives. For example, the wage discrimination has a direct impact on an individual's lifetime earning. We can calculate the gender wage gap by finding the average women's lifetime earnings compared to men's. According to Canadian Women Foundation, it could take a woman living in Ontario 14 additional years in order to earn the same pay a man earns by the age of 65. This also indicates that women have a higher risk of falling into poverty based on their lower earning power. The chances are even higher if they have children, divorced, widowed, etc (Rodas, 2017).
What can we do/ Solutions
Many of these discriminations are a result of a repeated stylization of the body. These set of repeated acts will congeal over time to produce the appearance of a substance of a natural sort of being (Smith, 2007). There are a lot of ways that we can help, even if it seems like it is not much. Since there are so many types of wage discriminations, there are many things that can be done. In general, being aware of the discriminations and addressing the systematic discrimination in the workplace is a good starting hand to begin with. For example, for gender, address the discrimination in the male-dominated workforce and help women enter higher wage occupations. Beginning to place women into careers that are more male-dominated such as science, technology, engineering, and such. By having the mindset and understanding of it then will increase the potential for more individuals to be aware of it. The discriminations will gradually die down as the society knows what the problems are and to change. As seen in racism in the past couple of decades. However, changes seen by organizations that establish workplace diversity and equity will more likely to have a faster result. Legislation like the Equal Pay Act won't exist if not for people who are aware of the discriminations and unfair treatments. Break off this cycle of repetition and begin to follow through your own inquiry from the actual relations to deal with these discriminations.
References
1. Butler, J. (1990). Gender trouble: Feminism and the subversion of identity. New York: Routledge. http://lauragonzalez.com/TC/BUTLER_gender_trouble.pdf
2. Howland, J., & Sakellariou, C. (1993). Wage discrimination, occupational segregation and visible minorities in Canada. Applied Economics, 25(11), 1413-1422. 10.1080/00036849300000146 https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00036849300000146
3. Kampelmann, S., & Rycx, F. (2016). Wage discrimination against immigrants: Measurement with firm-level productivity data. IZA Journal of Migration, 5(1), 1-24. doi:10.1186/s40176-016-0063-1 https://izajodm.springeropen.com/articles/10.1186/s40176-016-0063-1
4. Oreopoulos, Philip. 2011. “Why Do Skilled Immigrants Struggle in the Labor Market? A Field Experiment with Thirteen Thousand Resumes.” American Economic Journal: Economic Policy 3(4): 148-171. http://oreopoulos.faculty.economics.utoronto.ca/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Why-Do-Skilled-Immigrants-Struggle-in-the-Labor-Market.pdf
5. Rodas S., (2017). The Gender Wage Gap in Canada. Canadian Women's Foundation published Feb 2017, https://www.canadianwomen.org/the-facts/the-wage-gap/
6. Smith D. 2007. Institutional Ethnography: A Sociology For People. The British Journal of Sociology. Volume 58, Issue 3 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.1468-4446.2007.00162_16.x
7. Wald, S., & Fearon, G. (2011). The earnings gap between black and white workers in canada: Evidence from the 2006 census. Relations Industrielles, 66(3), 324-348. doi:10.7202/1006342ar https://www.riir.ulaval.ca/sites/riir.ulaval.ca/files/2011_66-3_2.pdf