Emanuela Heyninck and Employment Patterns

Ontario Pay Equity: Ontario Pay Equity Commissioner Emanuela Heyninck is on the committee and admitted laws have not kept up with changing employment patterns. "We are looking at what that non-traditional employer-employee relationship looks like," she said. "That traditional employment relationship is not the standard anymore and that will have a tremendous impact on our final report." In a background report published before the commission started its tour, researchers said failing to close the gender wage gap will have serious implications for the province economy. "Women in Ontario have made significant progress in areas such as labour force participation and education, according to Hamilton Spectator. Yet, they continue to earn less than men," the report says. "Women are overrepresented in lower-paying occupations and industries, make up a disproportionate number of employees in minimum wage and part-time positions, and remain under-represented in many higher paying jobs and sectors that have traditionally been male-dominated. "Achieving greater pay equality between men and women would benefit Ontario economy and society at large," the report says. "The gender wage gap is both an issue of fairness and an economic imperative. The four-member Gender Wage Gap commission stopped at the Royal Botanical Gardens headquarters Monday night, one of 13 such stops on a tour of Ontario looking for ways to fulfil Premier Kathleen Wynne orders to close the gap. "Each community is different," the commission executive lead Nancy Austin told a group of three dozen women who turned out to grapple with the issue. "A solution that works in one place may not necessarily work in another." The members heard, however, about a slate of common ideas tabled in many communities they've visited — tougher pay equity legislation, universal and affordable child care for working mothers, more affordable housing, changes in corporate and social cultures to encourage girls to look at career options that pay better. "The problem starts and ends with legislation," one frustrated woman told the panel. "The legislation we have is toothless and can't be enforced." Several local midwives attended the session and complained they're paid barely half their real value, but the province anti-discrimination laws don't help them because they're not in traditional employment relationships. Failure to address this gap could undermine the competitiveness of Ontario businesses and the province potential for economic growth." A 2005 study by the Royal Bank, for example, concluded that if Ontario working women were paid the same as men they would have $168 billion more every year in wages, giving them more to spend on necessities and better income security in their senior years. Under such initiatives the pay gap has narrowed — from an average difference of 55.6 per cent in 1976 to 44.4 per cent in 1986 and 31.5 per cent in 2011, but the pace of improvement seems to be slowing. Unequal pay based on gender is not a new issue — one of Canada early efforts was signing on to the International Labor Organization 1951 "Convention Concerning Equal Remuneration for Men and Women for Work of Equal Value." That same year, Ontario passed the Female Employees Fair Remuneration Act. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.