PREFACE

• Equity Theory is the perception of employees on what is fair when their contributions and rewards are compared to others they consider similar
• Some years ago wages were based upon gender
• (the amount by which the average pay for full-time male worker)－(the amount by which the average pay for full-time female worker)= gender wage gap
• Canada’s gender wage gap: 30 % (last decade)
• The factors that contribute to this gap: differences in occupations, qualifications, experiences, industries, union membership, and presence of discrimination
• The Pay Equity legislation was introduced to redress the occupational segregation and historical undervaluing of work done by women

CURRENT LEGISLATION

1. The Canadian Human Rights Act (1976) - for public sector employees and large companies such as Canada Post, Banks, Railway etc
2. The Ontario Pay Equity Act (1987) - for private sector employees

FEDERAL

• The Canadian Human Rights Act was enacted in 1976
• The Act prohibits discrimination in hiring and employment - (race, ethnicity, religion, gender, marital status, sexual orientation, age, mental or physical ability)
• Section 11: (1) It is a discriminatory practice for an employer to establish or maintain differences in wages between male and female employees employed in the same establishment who are performing work of equal value

PROVINCIAL

• Ontario Pay Equity Act
• Passed in 1987 to ensure that an employer's compensation provides pay equity for all employees
• The Pay Equity Commission regulates the enforcement of the law
• The commission is divided into two independent bodies: The Pay Equity Office and The Pay Equity Hearings Tribunal
• Organizations must take certain steps to achieve the pay equity plan as outlined by the Act
• These steps include: determine what rule applies, identify female and male job classes , establish a joint committee to conduct the pay equity process, select a gender-neutral job comparison system, collect job information, compare jobs (job-to-job, proportional value and proxy methods), check for permissible differences, adjust compensation, communicate the results and maintain pay equity
• Part 1: Section 7: every employer shall establish and maintain compensation practices that provide for pay equity in every establishment of the employer
• Part 1: Section 9(1): An employer shall not reduce the compensation payable to any employee or reduce rate of compensation for any position in order to achieve pay equity

PRIMARY RESEARCH

• One of the largest tire producing companies in the world
• Started in 1898 with 13 workers in Ohio, United States
• Global presence in Africa, America, Asia and Europe
• Ranks up to $16 billion in annual sales
• Operates in Alberta, Ontario and Quebec with over 100 employees at each location
• The Ontario Pay Equity Act applies to Goodyear as it is a private company and has more than 10 employees at its Toronto headoffice

• The company has different pay equity plans for various locations; one plan for its unionized and one for non-unionized employees
• Each plan is designed on a spreadsheet including data of employees such as name, gender, position, pay bound, start date etc. in a tabular form
• The pay plans are re-evaluated regularly and are in accordance with the legislation and company policy
• The company post the plans where all employees can have access to it
• Goodyear maintains its Pay Equity Plans by regular job evaluation i.e following market trends, gathering job information, knowing the value of every KSAOs relevant to the organization
• By monitoring job class restructure where changes may arise
• Finally, the company conducts a cursory evaluation when there is a fundamental change in the organization structure

SECONDARY RESEARCH

Acts as the crown corporation functioning as the country's postal operator both locally and internationally

• 1867: Royal Mail Canada was founded
• 1960s: rebranded to Canada Post
• 1983: The Public Service Alliance of Canada filed against Canada Post on behalf of 2,300 clerical workers (mostly females) for undervalued salaries
• 1985-1992: Investigation began
• 1993-2003: court hearings about female workers salary which transcript was 46,000 pages long
• 2002: The tribunal made a decision that $150 million be paid to eligible workers, although, PSAC asked for $300 million in damages
• Canada Post refused the tribunal's ruling and took the case to the Supreme Court
• 2011: The Supreme Court ruled in favour of the workers in. the ruling amounted to $250million in damages
• 2015: Already paid about 10,000 people while more than a thousand are still eligible
• 2017: Still seeking out eligible workers

• No reservation towards the law as an organization
• A worthwhile law to be emulated in other countries
• Right measure to amend the gender wage gap that still exist in some work place