Introduction

Despite the progress that has been made over the decades, there still remains a considerable pay gap between men and women in the workforce. On top of this, the march towards pay equality seems to have slowed down considerably in the first quarter of the 21st century. For example, because of the social climate of the late 70s, the rate of wages rising for women was outpacing men at such a rate that it was predicted in a 1981 article By Medicine Hat News that women would be out earning men by the year 2017. 

As we know, this did not happen. In fact, over the last 10 years the gender wage gap hasn’t meaningfully changed at all and has hovered around 13% according to a report by the Financial Accountability Office of Ontario. This figure is even worse when looking at marginalized female groups such as racialized women, indigenous women, newcomers, women with disabilities, and transgender women. Why is this and what can be done about it? Before we can address future roadblocks and opportunities, let’s take a look at the past.

Historical Battles Won

In the past, Ontario was at the forefront of the fight against gender-based wage discrimination in Canada. It was the first province to address this issue by passing the Fair Employment Practices Act of 1951 which prohibited employers from paying female employees less than male employees for the same work in the same establishment. This landmark legislation was a huge step towards equal pay for equal work in Canada. This progress was followed up in 1952 by the Female Employees Fair Remuneration Act which protected a women’s right to equal pay. In 1954 the Fair Accommodation Practices Act was enacted to prevent discrimination in services, facilities and accommodations in public spaces. These wins saw real movement for women in a time when the ideas around women’s rights and their place in society and the working world were changing in this country. As we move up to the present day, many believe these issues are not as poignant as they were before, that women’s issues such as wage equality are on a cruise trajectory to equality. The facts paint a different picture.

Current Landscape

Recent data reveals that Ontario's gender wage gap stands at approximately 13%, slightly above the Canadian national average of 12% for working women between the ages of 20 to 54. When compared with Canadian-born men, wage gaps in 2022 were largest for immigrant women who landed as adults (21%) and Indigenous women (20%) and were smallest for immigrant women who landed as children (11%) and Canadian-born women (9%). When examining demographic intersections, Immigrant women who obtained their credentials outside Canada (33%) faced larger wage gaps than those educated in Canada (16%). Educational attainment provides only partial protection, as women energy professionals with advanced degrees still face an 11.4% pay discrepancy. The energy sector presents a particularly stark contrast of compensation between the sexes. For example, when looking at the oil and gas sector in Alberta, which we all know attracts men and women from communities across the country, women earn on average 21% less than their male counterparts in comparable positions. This is one of the widest disparities among Ontario's industrial sectors. These findings underscore how systemic barriers compound across multiple dimensions of identity, creating particularly challenging advancement conditions for women in the workforce.

Racial Factors

The gender pay gap is worse for those who face multiple barriers, including racialized women, Indigenous women, and women with disabilities. Though it differs by age group, the gap starts from a young age and carries into the senior years. The gender wage gaps are the largest for immigrant women landing as adults and indigenous women. All racialized women made 59.3% of what white men made according to the Canadian women’s foundation.

Underlying Factors / Root Causes

To truly bring the fight towards pay equality in Ontario, we need to review the systemic factors that affect a woman’s career and ultimately her ability to move up the pay structure within any job in corporate Canada.

Occupational Segregation

This idea explains how women are led away from high earning and prestigious roles within their career and are expected to fill the lower paying positions. This concept according to a project conducted by the University of Toronto states that occupational segregation is a key mechanism of social inequality. Even though women have been moving into more gender integrated occupations, more can be done to make meaningful inroads into the more heavily male dominated occupations. White men still dominate professions such as engineering managers, aircraft pilots, and personal financial advisors. In 2024, 29% of executive officer positions and 5% of CEO positions in Ontario are held by women. These issues have stalled a women’s career with no real movement on this front since the 90s.

The Motherhood Penalty

If a woman decides to stay at home and raise a family, this usually requires her to sacrifice her career development. Women who do work are more likely to be the ones to take time off to take care of a sick child or take part in a mid-day school event. These trips away from the office can lead to missed opportunities for career advancement. This is known as ‘the motherhood penalty’. A study by census bureau researchers found that between two years before the birth of a couple's first child and a year after, the earnings gap between opposite sex couples doubles. The gap continues to grow until that child enters the tween years at which time it begins to reverse yet never goes away. Employers that don’t offer flexible work hours, appropriate compensation or accommodations exacerbate the situation.

Hiring Biases 

According to the American Sociological Association, employers tend to hire off of personal feelings of comfort, validation, and excitement over identifying with superior cognitive or technical skills and perceived similarities in leisure pursuits, background, and self preservation. In other words, employers tend to hire those who remind them of themselves. If the employer is a white male which is still predominantly the case. They have a predisposition to hire more white males.

Policy Frameworks and Non-Profit Initiatives

Ontario's Pay Equity Act established in 1987 which built on previous legislation wins, has achieved mixed results in addressing systemic wage discrimination. While the Act has provided a legal framework for addressing gender-based wage disparities, enforcement mechanisms and compliance monitoring have lagged behind more robust models seen in Quebec, where mandatory reporting requirements have accelerated progress. A significant development came with Ontario's passage of Bill 149, the Working for Workers Four Act in 2023, which mandated compensation transparency by requiring employers to disclose expected salary ranges in public job postings—a measure that early data suggests has helped narrow initial offering disparities in its first year of implementation. The legislation's innovative AI disclosure requirement, compelling companies to state when artificial intelligence is used in applicant screening, represents an important step in preventing algorithmic bias from perpetuating historical wage inequities. Organizations such as the Ontario Chamber of Commerce and Women in Renewable Energy (WiRE) have created industry-wide accountability frameworks through voluntary certification programs and mentorship initiatives that have boosted women's representation in energy sector leadership by 14% since 2020. However, the shift toward remote and hybrid work models has introduced new complexities for gender pay equity—while offering flexibility that benefits many women with caregiving responsibilities, research indicates that remote workers, particularly women, experience a 16% reduction in visibility for promotion opportunities compared to in-office peers, creating a "proximity premium" that threatens to undermine formal equity policies when informal networking and decision-making remain centralized in physical workplaces.

Future Directions

To achieve meaningful gender pay equity in Ontario, provincial and federal governments must consider the following:

1. Implement mandatory pay transparency reporting for companies with over 50 employees. Currently in Ontario, employers with 100 or more employees are required to disclose certain information about their compensation practices, the first of which reports were mandated to be sent by 2021. Lowering the bar of entry for requiring these reports would hold a wider variety of employers accountable. 
2. Companies should adopt standardized job evaluation frameworks eliminating subjective criteria associated with gender bias, while implementing "blind" promotion processes based on quantifiable achievements. 
3. The energy sector would benefit from formal sponsorship programs pairing senior executives with high-potential women employees, a model where sponsored women experience faster career advancement. 
4. Educational institutions must expand STEM programs designed to attract female students, with curriculum emphasizing real-world applications and mentorship connections to Ontario's growing clean energy sector. 
5. Sustainable progress requires normalizing flexible work arrangements for all genders, challenging deep-seated assumptions about "women's work" versus "men's work" in industrial sectors, and implementing ongoing unconscious bias training tied to performance reviews. Ontario has the potential to become Canada's leader in workplace gender equity through this comprehensive approach addressing structural, organizational, and cultural dimensions simultaneously.

Conclusion

The journey toward gender pay equity in Ontario reflects both encouraging progress and persistent challenges. From pioneering legislation in the 1950s to recent transparency initiatives like Bill 149, Ontario has demonstrated a commitment to addressing wage discrimination—yet the stubborn 12.8% gender wage gap reveals how deeply entrenched disparities remain, particularly in male-dominated sectors like energy. Systemic barriers including occupational segregation, the motherhood penalty, hiring biases, and compounding discrimination against racialized and immigrant women continue to impede meaningful progress. True equity requires a comprehensive approach: strengthened legislation with robust enforcement mechanisms, corporate cultures that value diversity beyond mere compliance, educational initiatives that dismantle gender segregation in career pathways, and workplace policies that acknowledge caregiving responsibilities across genders. As Ontario stands at this critical juncture, closing the gender wage gap isn't simply a matter of fairness—it represents an economic imperative that will unlock the full potential of the province's workforce and establish Ontario as a genuine leader in workplace equity. The path forward demands sustained commitment from government, industry, educational institutions and individual workplaces to transform policies, practices and cultural norms that have maintained inequality for too long. Only through this collaborative, multi-faceted approach can we fulfill the promise of equal pay for equal work that was envisioned over seven decades ago.

Thought Piece #1: Written by Jerome J., Director