Equal pay for work of equal value, or pay equity, is at its core an equality issue. Basic fairness is at the heart of ensuring people who do “women’s work” in a workplace are paid equally to people who do “men’s work” in that workplace.
There are other reasons for pay equity. In Canada in 2021, women earned 89 cents, on average, for every dollar a man earned. Building pay equity into the compensation practices of individual employers will help to reduce the overall gender pay gap.
Additionally, employers face constantly greater scrutiny in relation to their compensation practices and pay equity can significantly help employers maintain or restore a good reputation as an employer of choice.
The right to pay equity exists within separate workplaces or establishments. The GNWT public service, the Northwest Territories Power Corporation and GNWT teachers each constitute their own separate establishment. This means that when a pay equity investigation is undertaken, its scope is tied to the establishment.
Pay equity measures the value of work based on the composite, or total, of the skills, effort, responsibility associated with the work, and the conditions under which the work is performed.