Course:VANT149/2022/Capstone/Arts/GroupE2

Research Question

Are there any relationships between the gender pay gap and the wages of males and females with the same education levels in Canada?

Student researcher names

Leo Zhao

Kai Xu

Oliver Huang

Project proposal summary

Gender inequality is known to be a severe social issue at the moment and one of the factors affecting the sustainability of society that cannot be ignored. The wage gap is clear evidence of gender inequality. In our project, the variable we will rigorously control for is educational qualifications. This is because only the wage gap between men and women with the same educational background can indicate wage inequality. Conversely, comparing the pay gap between female undergraduate graduates and male Ph.D. graduates as evidence of gender inequality is not justified. In order to examine gender inequality in the wage gap in more depth, we will use quantitative and survey as our research method, combining both expert opinion and data on the wage difference gap between men and women with the same education level in most jobs in Canada, to analyze whether there are gender differences and possible reasons for that. In this case, we will obtain relatively accurate data on the wage gap and examine the different wage gaps across different educational backgrounds. For example, is the pay gap more significant for recent undergraduates? Or is the pay gap greater for PhDs of different genders?

Project Objectives and Contribution to Scholarship

Nowadays, the current knowledge gap in the research is that although Canada has the "most extensive pay equity legislation in the world"(Jehn, 2019), however, no systematic research has been done on the wage gap between men and women with the same educational qualification. During this project we aim to figure out why the gender wage gap will be produced in the case of people who have the same education qualification, and we will come up with some possible solution at the end of the research. In addition, our final version of the research question is “Are there any relationships between the gender pay gap and the wages of males and females with the same education levels in Canada”? which correspond with our requirement to figure out the correlation between wage gap and educational qualifications. Beyond that, the RQ we choose can fill the research gap on wage gap between both genders with the same education level. Most importantly, it can somewhat contribute to achieving gender equality by proposing our findings on the part that other scholars ignored. Our research project will finally explain the core causes of the gender pay gap and offer some possible solutions to make more people aware of the pay gap despite the fact that there is a pay gap in the case of diploma parity.

Connection of Research Proposal to Sustainability

Gender wage gap is an important issue for the sustainable development of society. Women still earn less on average than men with the same degree, and the wage gap even widens as education increases. These phenomena tend to affect the enthusiasm of women in study and work, and the unfair salary often causes greater social pressure for women. Our study collected a lot of data to see if the gender wage gap still exists.

Literature Review

According to the explanation of the UN SDG (2021), "Gender inequalities are still deep-rooted in every society. Women suffer from lack of access to decent work and face occupational segregation and gender wage gaps." This means that gender inequality remains an important issue in society so far. Even though Canada has the "most extensive pay equity legislation in the world"(Jehn, 2019), women still earn less on average than men. The large pay gap reflects the disadvantaged position of women in the workplace, and significant pay inequality can lead to a decrease in women's engagement and satisfaction in the workplace. (Phillips, 2019). Taking the field of education as an example, the Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT) reports that the average female teacher among all occupations earns $90,165 per year, while the average male salary is as high as $101,113 (Gatto, 2018). University of Ottawa's Education Policy Research Initiative and the Labor Market Information Council explains that "the report found women earn 12 percent points -- or $5,700 -- less than men one year after graduation Difference widens to $17,000, or about 25 percent, in the five years following graduation" ( Abedi, 2020). As Antonie (2020) states, females congregate in industries, occupations or fields of study that are lower paid compared to males. This phenomenon exacerbates the gender inequality of women in acquiring job opportunities. Overall, females have far fewer opportunities to acquire higher-paying occupations while compared to males with the same educational level.

References

Abedi, M. (2020, January 17). Women earn less than men in Canada right after graduation - then it gets worse: Report - national. Global News. Retrieved June 20, 2022, from https://globalnews.ca/news/6409280/earnings-gap-canada-men-women/

An, J., & Weber, I. (1970, January 1). Diversity in online advertising: A case study of 69 brands on Social Media. SpringerLink. Retrieved June 20, 2022, from https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-01129-1_3

Gatto, L., Heyko, D., Plesca, M., & Antonie, L. (1970, January 1). Gender wage gap in the university sector: A case study of all universities in Ontario, Canada. SpringerLink. Retrieved March 20, 2022, from https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-01129-1_15

Jehn, A., Walters, D., & Howells, S. (2019, August 23). Employment and wage gaps among recent Canadian male and female postsecondary graduates - higher education policy. SpringerLink. Retrieved June 20, 2022, from https://link.springer.com/article/10.1057/s41307-019-00162-0

Phillips, T. (2019, May). The real-world impact of gender pay gaps: Workspan Magazine - workspan by WorldatWork. WorldatWork. Retrieved April 9, 2022, from https://worldatwork.org/workspan/articles/the-real-world-impact-of-gender-pay-gaps#:~:text=The%20 gender%20wage%20 gap%20 effects,increases%20by%20%24439%2C000%20each%20year.

United Nations. (n.d.). Gender equality and women's Empowerment | Department of Economic and Social Affairs. United Nations. Retrieved June 20, 2022, from https://sdgs.un.org/topics/gender-equality-and-womens-empowerment