This past weekend was Mother's Day.
For much of my youth, I grew up in a single parent home as my father passed away at an early age. I wasn't really conscious of the fact at the time. It was just the way things were.
When my father was still alive, though, my siblings and I used to celebrate Mother's Day by making my mother breakfast in bed, giving her cards and generally trying to be on our best behavior. After my father passed, Mother's Day become something of a mad scramble. My mother eventually outlawed it for our family.
Mother's Day is the one day of the year we set aside to give thanks to the woman who gave us life. Brunch at a fancy restaurant, a card made with love, some flowers and a fancy dinner are all part of the traditional motif.
But it does beg the question - why give thanks only one day a year?
Shouldn't we be thankful all year round? And shouldn't we be thankful to both our parents?
For that matter, shouldn't we be thankful to all the people in our lives who have helped us to be the people we are? Canadians are a very polite people and I still hear people saying "thank you" but perhaps not as much as I once did.
In any case, on Mother's Day we recognize that women still do the majority of work in the home. Not all the work, but most of it. And there are certainly more women raising families as a single parent than men.
Women are also a significant component of the labour force, engaged in paid employment. There are some people who would argue that both "work" work and "home" work should be treated equally and compensated in the same way. I am not sure I would go that far. I know many men who do an awful lot of "home" work as well.
That said, it is 2016 and women still earn less than men, on average, 74.4 per cent of what men do. It is time things changed. There are all sorts of reasons given for why the wage gap exists. For example, one of the more common rationales is women work fewer hours as a group than men do, tending to have only part-time jobs.
A recent report by Oxfam Canada and the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives puts that claim to bed.
When all of the variables such as hours of work, level of education and experience, and type of employment are accounted for, the wage gap remains.
Women are often paid less for doing exactly the same job.
Part of the problem, though, is women disproportionately work in lower-wage occupations and low-pay industries. Women account for twice as many minimum-wage positions as men in the 25 to 54 age bracket.
Minimum wage jobs are meant to be entry-level positions leading to higher pay as one matures, but too often they become traps for mature workers.
Further, about two-thirds of the female labour pool is still concentrated in stereotypical professions - teaching, nursing and health care, office and administrative work, sales and the hospitality industry. While critical to our economy, these are not positions to which we attach high value.
As an example, the male-dominated profession of truck driver had an average wage in Canada of $45,417 according to Statistics Canada. The female-dominated profession of "early childhood educator" is paid only $25,252 per year despite the requirement for post-secondary training in order to work.
There is a systemic imbalance.
An example of how out of balance the system can be is the American women's national soccer team.
Five members of the team - including stars Hope Solo, Carli Lloyd, and Alex Morgan - have filed a wage-discrimination action against the U.S. Soccer Federation.
How bad are things? The American men's national soccer team players receive pay for their matches. A win earns each player $17,000. A loss drops that number to $5,000.
For the women's team, a win earns a player $1,300.
They are not paid if they lose.
The women's team has won World Cups, Olympic Gold medals, and played to some of the largest sporting crowds in the country.
Indeed, the women's team has some of the largest television ratings for soccer ever recorded.
The men's team has yet to win anything. The lawsuit points out that the women's team generated nearly
$20 million more in revenue last year than the men's and yet the women only earn about a quarter of what the men earn.
Equal pay for equal work should be the case but to be paid less for doing more would appear to be insane.
Last weekend was Mother's Day but I would dare say most women would give up the annual celebration for equality.
