quote:

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A new report says women are still getting paid less than men, regardless of talent, education or experience.

And the report by the Canadian Labour Congress says women who put off starting a family so they could earn a degree and build a career over the last 10 years are actually worse off than they were before.

It says the wage gap between them and their male counterparts has grown.

The CLC report, coinciding with International Women's Day on Saturday, found that women in Canada who worked full-time, full-year jobs in 2005 earned just 70 cents for every dollar earned by men.

[snip]

There were two times more men earning over $60,000 a year than women, and far more women than men worked at jobs that earned less than $35,000.

The majority of people working for minimum wage were women.

[snip]

The report makes several recommendations:

• Change employment standards so that full-time hours and part-time hours get paid the same when the same work is done.

• Raise the minimum wage to at least $10 an hour.

• Improve public pension plans so women, who live longer, aren't penalized for taking time away from the workforce to care for children.

• Improve access to quality and affordable child care; the report says two-thirds of women with children under the age of six are working outside the home.

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The comments on this issue just make me sick

[ 08 March 2008: Message edited by: rural - Francesca ]

I have a prediction: Never have I seen so much "mainstream" attention paid to IWD -- starting, but not ending, with Janine Krieber's (Stéphane Dion's wife) party for women where she had Stornoway decked out with pink flowers and all the finger food -- including the tiny hamburgers -- were pink.

I have seen lifestyle articles that suggest you get "in touch with your girlie side..." for IWD.

I have been getting some kind of societal vibration around March 8 that I have never seen before.

Therefore, my prediction is -- please remember you heard it here first -- that within the next couple of years, IWD will be taken over by Hallmark and the retail/service sector.

I said this to my husband this morning and he began (with some contribution from me) to make up slogans: "Show your solidarity with your sweetie with a diamond pendant from De Beers." Or maybe, "Empower her with a day at the spa." Or, "Show her you respect her with a weekend away from her kitchen and kids at ..."