Pay Equity Report Card Grades Ontario Parties

TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwired - June 10, 2014) - Ontario's Equal Pay Coalition today released its Ontario election 2014 Pay Equity Report Card scoring the four Ontario political parties on their records and campaign platforms related to closing Ontario's 31.5% gender pay gap. Parties responded to a Coalition letter and questionnaire.

THE RESULTS:

No provincial party can boast top marks. Explicit references to the gender pay gap or pay equity are absent from all Ontario parties' election platforms. The Progressive Conservatives did not even address the gender pay gap in their reply and when in power they cut back on the pay equity rights of Ontario women. The Liberals and NDP both responded to the Coalition with a promise to work on developing a plan to close the gender pay gap. These parties as well have a record of taking some actions to close Ontario's gender pay gap including proposing wages for underpaid public sector workers such as personal support workers and child care workers.

Many of the 10 steps to close Ontario's gender pay gap highlighted in the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives 2014 report, A Growing Concern: Ontario's Gender Pay Gap involve government action. None of the parties have yet made the issue a true priority and as a result Ontario's gender pay gap is widening not narrowing.

These results are being circulated to assist voters to choose a political party which will work together with other parties, employers, trade unions and communities to come up with a plan to close Ontario's gender pay gap. "We need our legislators back at work at Queen's Park working on this issue so that next April, 2015's Equal Pay Day will see progress on closing the gap," says Mary Cornish, Chair, Ontario's Equal Pay Coalition.

"At the current rate, without a new plan to combat pay inequity, Ontario women will have to wait about 52 years before they have the same average annual earnings as men" says Cornish. "We are asking Ontarians to "mind the gap" when marking their ballot." To read the full Report Card and party responses, please visit here.