Canadian Women Earn 21% Less Than Men

The Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) recently posted this graph showing the gender wage gap between median men's and women's wages. I was surprised to see that Canada's gender gap is 21% - substantially higher than the average (17.6%) for OECD countries.

This means that for every $100 a Canadian woman makes, a man doing the same job makes $121. Canada even scored worse than the USA, whose gender gap is 19%. Poland, New Zealand and Belgium are leading the way in closing the gender gap - in these countries the gap is 10% or less.

The OECD reports:

"Even though most OECD countries have laws requiring equal pay between the sexes, women still earn less than men on average... Why do these differences persist? Discrimination is part of the answer. Women are also more likely to be in low-paid occupations and less likely to get promoted – in most countries the earnings gap is bigger among higher-paid workers. Childcare responsibilities mean women are also more likely to work part-time."