Alberta is the only province in Canada that does not have pay equity legislation. But what does that mean? Pay equity legislation would not mean everyone is paid the same, of course. Instead, it means people should be paid the same for doing the same or similar work of equal value.
AUPE members understand the importance of pay equity. Most people do—it just makes sense. But the Alberta government does not agree. The current UCP government has shown no interest in making pay equity the law. The NDP government did not introduce pay equity legislation either, nor did Progressive Conservative governments before them. This is a non-partisan issue that we can only solve if we work together and force politicians to care.
Download the Pay Equity poster to share with your coworkers or pin to the AUPE news board at your workplace.
AUPE’s membership is almost 75 per cent women. The wage gap between men and women is the most common form of pay inequity we see. In fact, the wage gap impacts Indigenous women, women of colour, and new Canadians the hardest. Disabled women are impacted even further.
Employers are sneaky about the gender wage gap. For example, instead of just giving a man and women doing the same environmental services jobs different wages, they might classify the man as a ‘custodian’ and the women as ‘cleaner,’ which they then use to justify paying the woman less.
The government’s changes to health care in Alberta, especially when it comes to standards of care, will do nothing to help the wage gap either. If anything, it will allow employers to pay workers lower wages for doing work previously assigned to higher-paid classifications.
AUPE members are dedicated to the principles of pay and social equity. We will not rest until pay equity is the law in Alberta.