August 26 is Women’s Equality Day in Canada

Today is Women’s Equality Day, established to encourage and promote equal rights and opportunities for women.

While Canadian society has made strides in women’s equality we still have a long way to go, most obviously by ensuring our reproductive rights as well as closing the pay equity gap.

“According to Statistics Canada (2022), as of 2021, the gender pay gap for full-time and part-time employees is 0.89, which means women make 89 cents of every dollar men make. The gender pay gap for full-time employees is 0.90, which means women make 90 cents of every dollar men make.”

Even more troubling is that “the gender wage gap is larger for racialized women, women who are newcomers, women with disabilities, Indigenous women, and trans women.”

Here’s how Jack Health and Jill Health is helping to support women’s equality:

• Balanced hiring policies with a focus on pay transparency

• HR audits to track and close gender gaps within teams

• Providing resources and support for employees who are looking to increase their skills and education

• Quarterly financial donations to not-for-profits whose purpose is to improve women’s equality and access to support

• Ongoing team training to ensure inclusive, accessible and equal workplace policies and external marketing

Jill Health’s purpose is to empower women to get the healthcare that we deserve, but we cannot do so in an environment that still refuses to pay women the wages they deserve and sets us up for systemic gendered poverty.

Here’s some further reading we’re sharing with our team:

• Allison Venditti, founder of Moms at Work, wrote this great piece about the wage gap and how we can fix it – https://allison-venditti.medium.com/the-wage-gap-is-real-but-we-can-fix-it-d38e279bb92c

• The Bumpy Ride dives into how to get women’s economic recovery back on track post-pandemic – https://policyalternatives.ca/sites/default/files/uploads/publications/National Office/2022/05/Bumpy ride_final.pdf

• This is an excellent overview of what are the components that make up the wage gap – surprise: 70% of the gap cannot be explained https://www.payequity.gov.on.ca/en/LearnMore/GWG/Pages/default.aspx

• McKinsey’s report takes a more business view on why advancing women’s equality makes good business sense – https://www.mckinsey.com/~/media/McKinsey/Featured Insights/Women matter/The power of parity Advancing womens equality in Canada/MGI-The-power-of-parity-Advancing-womens-equality-in-Canada-Full-report.ashx

• Amii Barnard-Bahn writes a straightforward and powerful instructional guide on how to fix pay inequality at your company. While it has a strong US centric slant, much of the actions are applicable to Canada – https://hbr.org/2020/11/how-to-identify-and-fix-pay-inequality-at-your-company

• And finally, a quick list of 12 things women created including computer programming, solar panels and chocolate chip cookies. You’re welcome, men! https://www.popbuzz.com/impulse-uk/things-that-were-invented-by-women/