It’s 2018, time to close the pay gap

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Friends, its Equal Pay Day today, the date on the calendar that sets how far into the year that women must work to catch up with how much men made last year.

It’s time to raise the bar for women and close the gap.

We at OPSEU have been leading the fight to achieve pay equity, which is the law in Ontario.

We’ve been at the forefront of efforts to negotiate pay equity for Ontarians for decades.

We have a hard fight ahead to win this battle. We’re continuing the fight, in fact we’ve recently launched a petition calling on the Premier to respect the Pay Equity Act. 

The gender wage gap for full-time, full-year workers in Ontario is still around 26 per cent.

The percentages are even higher for women who are racialized, Indigenous, an immigrant, a sexual minority, elderly, or who have a disability.

Clearly the biggest problem is employers not obeying the law in Ontario and in the case of publicly funded workplaces, it’s time for politicians to stop talking about solving the problem and start doing something about it.

And if the politicians think they can continue to drag their feet on pay equity, think again.  OPSEU will drag you kicking and screaming into the 21st century if that’s what it takes for women to get a fair deal in this province.

And governments and employers who don’t take OPSEU seriously, do so at their peril. Our family has grown to 155,000 members, two-thirds of whom are women. 

That is a powerful political and economic voice that is demanding that women are no longer left behind come pay day.

Warren (Smokey) Thomas, President

Eduardo (Eddy Almeida, First Vice-President/Treasurer.