Gender Equality Pols 234 paper Essays - Human Behavior, Gender

Gender Equality: Reduction of the Wage Gap Policy for British Columbia Submitted to the Honorable Bill Morneau Minister of Finance Toronto, Ontario Sarah Dunn Executive Summary In every city within the G7, the gender wage gap is evident. Thus, the repercussions of this economic issue are felt throughout the nation. The issue of gender discrimination has created substantial consequences in society for women: it has caused wage disparity to increase, we can conclude that public policy is required. The gender gap is a relevant issue today because women are paid unequally for equal work. For instance, in 2011, the gap was at 26% for full time work and in 1987 the gap was at 36%. Though the gender gap is slowly decreasing over the decades the issue is still evident and represents the discrimination that is still present. In 2016, Statistics Canada found that women who held a bachelor degree had a median income of $68,342 while men with the same level of education were earning around $82,082. Sheila Block who is a senior economist at the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives claimed that the gap is a result of "direct sexism in the labour market." It is necessary to implement policies to establish equality, in 2015 Prime Minister Justin Trudeau established the importance of gender equality by assembling a cabinet that included equal number of male and female ministers. When asked about the reason for his decision he stated, "Because its 2015." In 2015, women were only earning $0.87 for every dollar a man had earned. The wage gap presents an issue of equality in Canada. Gender discrimination has slowly improved but managerial positions are still dominated by men, representing the lack of representation of women. The gender wage gap is complex and needs to be understood in the context the economy. In regard to the economic context of the gender gap, part time workers must be a focus; 76% of Canadian part-time workers in 2015 were women. Women typically take part-time jobs instead of full time jobs because of the exorbitant prices of child care. This has to do with the trade-off between family and career that is prevalent in our society for women; a trade-off men usually do not have to face. It should be noted that between 10% and 15% of the wage gap is attributed to gender based wage discrimination and out of 34 countries in the OECD, Canada had the 7th highest gender wage gap in 2014. The wage gap is detrimental to women and it has created a cycle within itself that only worsens the wage gap; public policy needs to be implemented immediately. Options for Change This report presents two alternative options for combatting the gender wage gap. The first option is to improve education for women to ensure that they are sufficiently prepared to hold managerial positions. Businesses can provide industry promotions and recruitment which would motivate and empower the female demographic. It is imperative to provide opportunities for women to feel like they are sought after to establish incentive and drive. The government should partner with businesses to establish alternatives to address the stereotypes that are located in the workplace to combat discrimination that females may face. It is important to put forth positive role models to inspire women to attain an education and pursue their passion. The cost of this policy is going to be monetary, ensuring education in managerial positions, high-skill STEM, and entrepreneurship is going to be at least $150 billion dollars but without this cost the gap will increase. If the gender gap closed, the bene fit would almost triple by producing an extra $420 billion dollars in the next nine years. The final policy would be to instate legislation along with public services. The legislation would entail things such as transparency wages and fines for wage inequality. In regard to public services, they are essential to reduce gender inequality for their security. Unfortunately, childcare is not necessarily affordable, since the childcare crisis has created a drag in economic growth; the result is that parents are spending a third of their income on childcare. The childcare crisis attributes to the wage gap, women have to either stop working