Ontario calls for equal pay for women

Naidoo-Harris added it had been 30 years since Ontario had passed the Pay Equity Act and said more efforts are needed in getting women into top positions, CBCNews reports said.

Min. Naidoo-Harris said, "I think these are important targets because they really show that we are committed to really making sure that we're putting those women in those positions of leadership where they belong.  And that will absolutely open doors," CBCNews reports said.

She said women should continue to call for pay equity. Citing the recent women's march that began at Queen's Park, she said she believed things were changing.

Naidoo-Harris also referred to the government's recent announcement concerning investments in child care and called on women in Ontario to demand equality.

Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU) post on the facebook account of Pay Equity Act read, “30 years and still waiting In Ontario, women won equal pay for work of equal value in 1988 with the Pay Equity Act. Unfortunately, it’s been 30 years since then, and many women are still waiting to be paid fairly. Join us in celebrating International Women's Day 2017.”

Director of Unifor, Naureen Rizvi who represented hundreds of thousands of unionized employees in multiple sectors also found a large number of wages gap.

Ontario is working towards the increase of target for women on boards of Toronto Stock from the present 30 percent to 40 percent by 2020, CBCNews reports siad.

Sheila Block, senior economist at the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives said the most concerning fact about income inequality lay at bottom end of the income spectrum and this needed to be probed.

According to Catalyst Canada, a nonprofit organization that focused on expanding opportunities for women and business, Canadian women earned $0.82 to every $1 earned by men.

“The global pay gap was about $4,000 on average between men and women, and the Canadian pay gap was just over $8,000,” said Alex Johnston, executive director of Catalyst Canada, Globe and Mail reports said.

(Reporting by Asha Bajaj, Image of Indira Naidoo-Harris: Wikimedia Commons