Canada’s initiatives for women immigrants to reduce wage gaps speak volumes of its reputation as a progressive country. The chief objective of Canada is to contribute toward women’s equality in all aspects of life. Particularly, it focuses on new women immigrants who also form part of the Canadian workforce.
International Women’s Day on 8th March recognizes the massive contributions made by women. Besides this, it also spreads awareness of the distinct challenges they face regularly.
Even though Canada promotes equality for women and they access all rights similar to men, there are specific areas where they face gaps.
Women immigrants who are a part of the Canadian workforce
2022 Statistics Canada claims that nearly 4,200,630 new women immigrants prevail in the Canadian labor market. Out of these, around 2.9 million fell under the category of minorities, while 1.3 million didn’t fall under this category.
Reportedly, newcomers provided a 100 percent contribution to the Canadian labor force and 75 percent of the entire Canadian population. Statistics Canada claims that 83 percent of women were a part of the Canadian workforce. Onwards 1976, this depicts a 30 percent rise when only 50 percent of women in this country worked outside. The male members represented 91.5 percent of the Canadian labor market.
The January to June 2021 data of the Labor Force Survey reflects a drastic rise in the unemployment gap between new women immigrants and those born in Canada. The gap is 15.2 percent against 8.0 percent. Furthermore, employed immigrant women, such as racialized women, witnessed reduced pay rates within their employment sectors.
IRCC even stated that the racialized new women immigrants were disproportionately represented in the hospitality, food, and accommodation sectors.
Employment losses during COVID-19 had a significant impact on these sectors. These occupations saw some of the most substantial income declines among newcomer women who began their careers in Canada. The typical entry wage for female immigrants deteriorated from $26,100 to $23,200. This indicates an 11.1% decrease in 2019 and 2020.
Furthermore, a recent analysis of the role of new women immigrants working in executive positions revealed that every one in four women worked as executives, and one out of 7 women were recent immigrants. Every one in four women was born in the United States or the United Kingdom.
Immigrant women had the lowest median job salary, at $241,900, and experienced massive gender pay disparity, at 29%, among CEOs who were both immigrants and Canadian natives.
A maximum number of women immigrants came through Family Sponsorship
1,215,200 female immigrants entered Canada in 2022 as secondary applicants under an economic immigration program, which means they were the spouse, partner, or dependent of someone who had sought to immigrate to Canada via an economic immigration program. 1,194,685 extra people entered the country with the help of family sponsorship.
620,885 women were allowed to Canada as economic principals last year out of the total number of applicants. Economic immigration programs seek out applicants who have the expertise and skills that are in demand and will make it easy for them to integrate and boost the economy. As opposed to this, one of these programs allowed almost 930,000 men admission.
According to data, 66% of immigrant women who are married or in common law relationships are likely to work full-time, as opposed to 70% of women who were born in Canada. They must have immigrated to Canada primarily using Family Sponsorship programs.
Canada’s initiatives for women immigrants
Since the First World War, Canadian women have actively participated in the workforce, but there is still a pay difference between them and their male coworkers. According to the Canadian Women’s Foundation, women make 89 cents in Canada for every $1 that men make. The disparity between new women immigrants and those who were born in Canada is not taken into consideration.
The 2019 data reports that new women immigrants earned 20 percent less than Canadian-born women. Furthermore, this gap was reduced to 4.7 percent for immigrants.
The 2021 Census Data demonstrates that the number of income beneficiaries changes significantly among women and increases significantly among males if the income group rises above $60,000 annually. For instance, 1,109,610 males and 487,185 women in Canada reported having individual incomes exceeding $100,000 after taxes.
Canada’s initiatives for women immigrants to reduce existing gaps
The Pay Equality Act was executed by the federal government in August 2021 to eliminate the wage gap and equalize pay for women. Yet, this only applies to women who work in places of employment that are subject to federal regulation.
Legislation enacted in some provinces tries to guarantee equal pay for women. For instance, human rights laws in British Columbia, Alberta, Ontario, and Saskatchewan forbid salary discrimination based on gender. Furthermore, employment standards laws in Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Yukon, Newfoundland, and the Northwest Territories all provide that workers should get equal remuneration for the same or equivalent work.
The government recently pledged about $6 million in new financing for the Racialized Newcomer Women Pilot Program’s programs. This was a response to the lower salaries among racialized immigrant women. Participants in the Pilot have access to settlement services that assist with the development of soft skills to help them obtain jobs, such as making resumes. Nonetheless, a large portion of the cash is used for activities supporting the prevention of gender-based violence.
