This year, Equal Pay Day will be marked on April 4, meaning that women will have worked an extra quarter of a year just to earn what their male counterparts made last year.
Yes, we are still fighting for pay equality in 2023.
You can help us draw attention to this inequality by wearing red and sending your photo to women@unifor.org.
Unifor will post member and leader photos on April 4 to highlight our work to eliminate the gender wage gap and to call on all employers to pay women equally.
Unifor is a member of the Equal Pay Coalition, which works to dismantle the wage gap. I encourage you to visit their website for information on how the wage gap is calculated each year and check out these useful myth-busters. Please share with your friends and co-workers who may have questions about pay disparity between men and women.
The Equal Pay Coalition highlights major factors that contribute to women’s economic inequality including:
- The underemployment of women. Women make up the majority of part-time workers.
- Lack of access to affordable childcare for women who want full-time work.
- The segregation of women into lower paid job classes. In general, the higher the concentration of women, the lower the pay.
- Women’s dominance in minimum wage jobs.
- Women’s lack of access to collective bargaining.
We must also draw attention to how the pay gap increases substantially for those who face other forms of discrimination. Indigenous and racialized women, migrant and immigrant women, women who identify as LGBTQ, women with disabilities, and elderly women face additional barriers to pay equity.
So, wear red for April 4, send your photos to women@unifor.org, and stand in solidarity for pay equality.
Together, through organizing, collective bargaining, and making political change, we can eliminate the gender pay gap. Let’s keep organizing until we win!
In Solidarity,
Lana Payne
Unifor National President