Are Less-Educated Women in the Blind Spot of Pay Equity?

Abstract

In this article I will show two things: first, that the labour market is still very divided with respect to gender; and second, that the material impact of this division differs sharply by level of education. Among occupations that require the least education, women pay a very high price for this gender-based division of employment. In contrast to occupations where more education is needed, occupations requiring the least education show a huge difference in wages according to whether they are predominantly male or predominantly female. This difference is a widespread phenomenon that favours so-called male occupations. The corresponding pay gap, in men's favour, in occupations requiring a high school diploma (Secondary V in Quebec) or less, is shrinking only slightly, whereas the gaps between men and women in occupations requiring more education are clearly closing. The article then demonstrates that three often-mentioned options for action at present offer little hope of countering this particular phenomenon: these options are the application of Quebec's Pay Equity Act, collective bargaining, and internal promotion. The problem still affects approximately 500,000 women, after 25 years of equal access programs and close to 15 years of implementation of the Pay Equity Act. Employment equity programs are the most promising initiatives, provided that they can find their way into the affected employment sectors.

Are Pay Equity Policies Justified?

“…In most sectors, the policy had no effect because "comparable worth" is a nonspecific concept that requires employers, many of whom are small, to make impossible judgements across male and female jobs and, as a result, do nothing. A further finding on Quebec was that only women with high levels of education benefited from pay equity policies, a within-gender equity issue relevant to the rise in political rent seeking by increasingly feminized legislatures (Legault 2009).…”