What is pay equity?

The definition of pay equity is really equal pay for equal work or in other words a man and a woman should get the same pay for the same job. This is not always the case for women. Unions have been an asset to the female work force because the wages are set by the union for the job duties performed, not by who performs them. Women often are in administration jobs with a great amount of responsibility, but are often under paid as compared to a man with similar responsibilities. By enforcing pay equity laws, an employer will create a productive workforce among all employees.

In the Canadian workplace employees can value equity in different ways. They can compare their job to similar jobs within the same department, or compare their job to different jobs within the same workplace. Therefore, the equity or pay they receive can make the employee satisfied or dissatisfied depending on their view of the job they perform. Also, employees can compare their equity to others in another company who do similar jobs or others who are in the same union or profession.

To an employer equity can be compared in four categories: external equity, internal equity, individual equity and personal equity. External equity is when an employer pays wages comparable to similar companies doing the same jobs. There are many factors involved in this type of comparison. The factors can be geographic location, organization size, unions, industry sector, competition in the area, education required to do the job, as well as company prestige. A company has to look at all of these factors when setting wages because they could set their wage too high if they compare themselves to city locations rather than rural, or they could set their wages too low and not be able to attract and retain good employees.

Internal equity to an employer is when a company sets wages