This text is part of the special Syndicalism booklet
Talking about equality and women’s rights is not reserved for March 8, for the Union of Professionals and Professionals of the Government of Quebec (SPGQ). For several years, the organization has been knocking on the government’s door to encourage elected officials to act against systemic discrimination against women. A situation that still persists in the public sector and in several parapublic organizations, he claims.
“We knock, we knock and we knock again on the door [du ministre Boulet]. We sometimes hear someone say to us “yes yes, we are going to open it!”, but we are still waiting for it to open, the door! says Line Lamarre, president of the SPGQ. It’s a bit sad. Despite the Pay Equity Act, women are still struggling to be treated equally. »
This law adopted in 1996 has made great progress and has achieved many of the objectives it had at the start, underlines Ms.me Lamarre. But it has now reached its limits, she adds. “Currently, equity is only experienced within the same employer. There is a form of fairness in the public service, but when we examine the situation more closely, we realize that it is not yet perfected. »
Figures back up these claims. According to a study carried out by the Institute for Socio-Economic Research and Information (IRIS) in 2019, the purchasing power of employees of the Quebec administration showed a decline of approximately 1.2% compared to the year 2000, due to the various austerity measures introduced over the years. Conversely, the purchasing power of other sectors increased by 11% on average. However, the proportion of women (72.2%) within the Quebec administration is higher than in other sectors.
The report also states that “the pay gap between the Quebec administration and public enterprises is on average 24%. Employees of public enterprises are however mostly men, unlike those of the Quebec administration. »
Conclusion of the IRIS: employees of the Quebec administration, the vast majority of whom are women, suffer a form of systemic discrimination based on sex. “This discrimination is not observed between men and women within the different sub-sectors of the public sector, but rather between sexually segregated sub-sectors”, specifies IRIS. This means, for example, that for several job categories of professionals, predominantly male organizations, such as Hydro-Québec, often offer higher salaries than predominantly female organizations, such as national museums and the public service. “Why would a librarian at Hydro-Québec earn more than a librarian at the Grande Bibliothèque? asks M.me Lamarre.
When feminization rhymes with wage stagnation
Systemic discrimination based on gender has also made itself felt with the feminization of certain professions. This has been observed, among other places, in CEGEPs, indicates the president of the SPGQ, where the salary gap between professional staff members and other employment groups has evolved against them at the same pace as the feminization of the professions. . As a result, the salary of educational advisers, previously higher, is now lower than that of the teachers they advise. Significant problems of attraction and retention ensue, deplores the union.
By underpaying women, we send the message that they are less good. The current Pay Equity Act has not corrected this conception of the value of a woman’s work.
“The Pay Equity Act does not achieve its objective, summarizes Line Lamarre. It must ensure that, for the same complexity of employment and the same level of studies, one obtains the same salary in a company, but also between the different companies and the different sectors. »
In addition, these inequities send a negative message about the value of women, adds the president. “In marketing, when you want to sell a product, you can’t display it at too high a price, at the risk of people not buying it, but you can’t display it too low either, because you would then think that it is not a good product. We have the same reasoning for the salary of humans. If I am paid $50 an hour, I am surely better than if I am paid $20 an hour. By underpaying women, we send the message that they are less good. The current Pay Equity Act has not corrected this conception of the value of a woman’s work. »
This is why the SPGQ and the IRIS notably propose amending the Pay Equity Act to allow the establishment of pay equity programs between different sub-sectors of the public and parapublic sectors.