Saturday, January 28, 2023
No Result
View All Result
  • Media
Support Us
Macdonald-Laurier Institute
  • Home
  • About
    • Who We Are
    • Who Makes MLI Work
    • Tenth Anniversary
    • Jobs
  • Experts
    • Experts Directory
    • In Memoriam
  • Issues
    • Domestic Policy Program
      • Agriculture and Agri-Food
      • Canada’s Political Tradition
      • Economic policy
      • Energy
      • Health Care
      • Innovation
      • Justice
      • Social issues
      • Telecoms
    • Foreign Policy Program
      • Foreign Affairs
      • National Defence
      • National Security
    • Indigenous Affairs Program
  • Projects
    • COVID and after: A mandate for recovery
    • COVID Misery Index
      • Beyond Lockdown
    • Provincial COVID Misery Index
    • Centre for Advancing Canada’s Interests Abroad
      • Dragon at the Door
      • The Eavesdropping Dragon: Huawei
    • An Intellectual Property Strategy for Canada
    • Speak for Ourselves
    • Canada and the Indo-Pacific Initiative
    • DisInfoWatch.org
    • The Transatlantic Program
    • Indigenous Prosperity at a Crossroads
      • Aboriginal Canada and Natural Resources
    • Talkin’ in the Free World with Mariam Memarsadeghi
    • Past Projects
      • Justice Report Card
      • Munk Senior Fellows
      • A Mandate for Canada
      • Confederation Series
      • Fiscal Reform
      • The Canadian Century project
      • Fixing Canadian health care
      • Internal trade
      • From a mandate for change
      • Size of government in Canada
  • Events
    • Upcoming Events
    • Past Events
      • MLI Dinners
      • Great Canadian Debates
  • Latest News
  • Libraries
    • Inside Policy Magazine
      • Inside Policy Back Issues
      • Inside Policy Blog
    • Papers
    • Columns
    • Books
    • Commentary
    • Straight Talk
    • Video
    • Multimedia
    • Podcasts
    • Leading Economic Indicator
    • Labour Market Report
    • MLI in the Media
  • Home
  • About
    • Who We Are
    • Who Makes MLI Work
    • Tenth Anniversary
    • Jobs
  • Experts
    • Experts Directory
    • In Memoriam
  • Issues
    • Domestic Policy Program
      • Agriculture and Agri-Food
      • Canada’s Political Tradition
      • Economic policy
      • Energy
      • Health Care
      • Innovation
      • Justice
      • Social issues
      • Telecoms
    • Foreign Policy Program
      • Foreign Affairs
      • National Defence
      • National Security
    • Indigenous Affairs Program
  • Projects
    • COVID and after: A mandate for recovery
    • COVID Misery Index
      • Beyond Lockdown
    • Provincial COVID Misery Index
    • Centre for Advancing Canada’s Interests Abroad
      • Dragon at the Door
      • The Eavesdropping Dragon: Huawei
    • An Intellectual Property Strategy for Canada
    • Speak for Ourselves
    • Canada and the Indo-Pacific Initiative
    • DisInfoWatch.org
    • The Transatlantic Program
    • Indigenous Prosperity at a Crossroads
      • Aboriginal Canada and Natural Resources
    • Talkin’ in the Free World with Mariam Memarsadeghi
    • Past Projects
      • Justice Report Card
      • Munk Senior Fellows
      • A Mandate for Canada
      • Confederation Series
      • Fiscal Reform
      • The Canadian Century project
      • Fixing Canadian health care
      • Internal trade
      • From a mandate for change
      • Size of government in Canada
  • Events
    • Upcoming Events
    • Past Events
      • MLI Dinners
      • Great Canadian Debates
  • Latest News
  • Libraries
    • Inside Policy Magazine
      • Inside Policy Back Issues
      • Inside Policy Blog
    • Papers
    • Columns
    • Books
    • Commentary
    • Straight Talk
    • Video
    • Multimedia
    • Podcasts
    • Leading Economic Indicator
    • Labour Market Report
    • MLI in the Media
No Result
View All Result
Macdonald-Laurier Institute

Budget doesn’t make grade in truly helping women to narrow wage gap: Nazareth in the Globe and Mail

March 1, 2018
in Columns, In the Media, Latest News, Linda Nazareth
Reading Time: 3 mins read
A A

The reasons for the pay gap between men and women are not particularly new, writes Linda Nazareth in the Globe and Mail.

By Linda Nazareth, March. 1, 2018

Please, at least let’s start by using the right numbers. Of course there is a pay gap between men and women in Canada, but let’s not make it worse than it is.When you play with the statistics on male-female earnings, you lose your credibility and then who knows what else some of us are going to question.

Case in point: In the 2018 budget speech, Finance Minister Bill Morneau earnestly says that women make just 69 cents for every dollar earned by men on an annual basis. It is a shocker of a statistic, the same one that sometimes has people asserting that it is as if women start working for free at 2:40 in the afternoon while men keep getting paid all day. Trouble is, it simply is not true.

Comparing the earnings of men and women on an annual basis is a red herring given that women tend to work fewer hours than men. According to a 2017 study by Statistics Canada, when you look at hourly earnings of men and women, you see that women earn 87 cents for every dollar that men earn. That is still a gap and that’s not okay, but it is a lot less than the one Mr. Morneau is talking about.

Next, let’s look at why that gap exists and whether any of the policies put forth in the federal budget are likely to make a dent in it.

The reasons for the pay gap between men and women are not particularly new. Women tend to be clustered in fields that traditionally pay less than the ones that men choose, and in occupations that pay less as well. They are also a lot more likely than men to take “breaks” from work (a really poor word to express what happens when you are home with small children), which does not help their long-term earnings power either. And there is straight-out pay discrimination, which is some portion of that 13 cents although it is hard to know just how much.

And so we have a smorgasbord of offerings to women in this budget. Female entrepreneurs will have $1.4-billion earmarked for them through the Business Development Bank, along with another $250-million through Export Development Canada. Given that these sums are relatively small and will be doled out over a series of years, they are not much more than a token, but a welcome one anyway. The same is true for a promise to support women entering the trades, and the $85-million allocated to investigate sexual harassment claims in the work force.

The one child-care measure in the budget is a “use it or lose it” parental leave program that can be used by men or women. That presumably will allow women to return to work earlier if they want while knowing that their partners are home on their own “break,” taking care of their children. It is really not meaningful enough to change the hours worked by women very significantly, however.

Despite the hype, the measures directed at women in this budget are pretty scant, and that is actually okay. After all, according to that same Statistics Canada study, that 13-cent gap between men and women has narrowed already from 23 cents in 1977 and 18 cents in 1994. Maybe it is because over that period women have tired of waiting for help from the government and have gotten themselves loads more education and degrees, realizing that that is the best path to earning more. A just-published study from Georgetown University in Washington comes to the grim conclusion that for women to equal men’s pay they need one full degree more their male counterparts. Depressing as that is, in both the U.S. and Canada, women seem to be getting on with it and making that happen.

Looking at the budget through economist-eyes shows that the thing that most threatens the economic health of women is the same thing that threatens men: There is red ink as far as the eye can see. With deficits merrily forecast for years to come, the government figures that Canadian public debt payments will grow by 37 per cent between the last fiscal year and 2022/23. That is a burden that is going to fall on millennial men and women, and on Generation Z and Generation Alpha as well.

Celebrating women is nice, but really the best way to say some things is with money and on that, this budget does not make the grade.

Linda Nazareth is a Senior Fellow with the Macdonald-Laurier Institute.

Tags: Budget 2018federal budgetOttawaStatistics Canada
Previous Post

Bringing Canadian Security Into Focus: How to Clarify the Roles of Newly Created Accountability Bodies

Next Post

Statscan’s latest report shows how badly governments have demolished business investment: Cross in the Financial Post

Related Posts

Canada can help Ukraine in better ways than sending tanks: Richard Shimooka in the Hub
Columns

Canada can help Ukraine in better ways than sending tanks: Richard Shimooka in the Hub

January 27, 2023
Just as Canadians see smartphone bills head down, the cost of watching online content on them may be going up: Peter Menzies in the Financial Post
Columns

Want cheaper cellphone bills? Allow more foreign investment in telecoms: Aaron Wudrick in the National Post

January 27, 2023
Face it, millennials – There is no realistic alternative to capitalism: Philip Cross in the Financial Post
Columns

Face it, millennials – There is no realistic alternative to capitalism: Philip Cross in the Financial Post

January 27, 2023
Next Post
Statscan’s latest report shows how badly governments have demolished business investment: Cross in the Financial Post

Statscan’s latest report shows how badly governments have demolished business investment: Cross in the Financial Post

Macdonald-Laurier Institute

323 Chapel Street, Suite #300
Ottawa, Ontario
K1N 7Z2 Canada

613.482.8327

info@macdonaldlaurier.ca
MLI directory

Follow us on

Newsletter Signup

First Name
Last Name
Email Address

Support Us

Support the Macdonald-Laurier Institute to help ensure that Canada is one of the best governed countries in the world. Click below to learn more or become a sponsor.

Support Us

Inside Policy Magazine

  • Current Issue
  • Back Issues
  • Advertising
  • Inside Policy Blog
  • Privacy Policy

© 2021 Macdonald-Laurier Institute. All Rights reserved.

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • About
    • Who We Are
    • Who Makes MLI Work
    • Tenth Anniversary
    • Jobs
  • Experts
    • Experts Directory
    • In Memoriam
  • Issues
    • Domestic Policy Program
      • Agriculture and Agri-Food
      • Canada’s Political Tradition
      • Economic policy
      • Energy
      • Health Care
      • Innovation
      • Justice
      • Social issues
      • Telecoms
    • Foreign Policy Program
      • Foreign Affairs
      • National Defence
      • National Security
    • Indigenous Affairs Program
  • Projects
    • COVID and after: A mandate for recovery
    • COVID Misery Index
      • Beyond Lockdown
    • Provincial COVID Misery Index
    • Centre for Advancing Canada’s Interests Abroad
      • Dragon at the Door
      • The Eavesdropping Dragon: Huawei
    • An Intellectual Property Strategy for Canada
    • Speak for Ourselves
    • Canada and the Indo-Pacific Initiative
    • DisInfoWatch.org
    • The Transatlantic Program
    • Indigenous Prosperity at a Crossroads
      • Aboriginal Canada and Natural Resources
    • Talkin’ in the Free World with Mariam Memarsadeghi
    • Past Projects
      • Justice Report Card
      • Munk Senior Fellows
      • A Mandate for Canada
      • Confederation Series
      • Fiscal Reform
      • The Canadian Century project
      • Fixing Canadian health care
      • Internal trade
      • From a mandate for change
      • Size of government in Canada
  • Events
    • Upcoming Events
    • Past Events
      • MLI Dinners
      • Great Canadian Debates
  • Latest News
  • Libraries
    • Inside Policy Magazine
      • Inside Policy Back Issues
      • Inside Policy Blog
    • Papers
    • Columns
    • Books
    • Commentary
    • Straight Talk
    • Video
    • Multimedia
    • Podcasts
    • Leading Economic Indicator
    • Labour Market Report
    • MLI in the Media

© 2021 Macdonald-Laurier Institute. All Rights reserved.

IDEAS CHANGE THE WORLD!Have the latest Canadian thought leadership delivered straight to your inbox.
First Name
Last Name
Email address

No thanks, I’m not interested.