'We've heard from many people who are in leadership positions that they feel there’s a leaky pipeline'
The difference between what female workers are paid versus their male counterparts has long been a source of contention.
While governments and progressive organizations are looking to make difference in eliminating this shortfall, it remains an elusive goal for everyone to be paid equally for equal work.
But a new report shows that for those at the highest levels, the gap persists in even greater proportions.
With only four women among Canada’s highest-paid 100 CEOs in, the average male CEO made $18.5 million while the average woman made $11.7 million, according to the report, Canada’s new gilded age, CEO pay in Canada in 2022, published by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA).
In other words, the average top female CEO makes 63 cents for every dollar a male CEO makes, says the report, which reviewed proxy circulars of 234 companies listed on the S&P/TSX composite index in June 2022.
‘Gender leadership barriers exist’
For one expert, this findings are not at all surprising.
“It’s clear that the gender leadership barriers exist, even at the highest levels of corporate Canada. And we know that from other studies, we’ve seen one-third of management occupations are held by women,” says Andrea Gunraj, vice-president of public engagement at The Canadian Women’s Foundation (CWF) in Toronto.
“There’s gendered leadership barriers that exist on all levels of corporate Canada, and it’s worse for some.”
When women do ascend the heights of the corporation, effective support is scant, leading many to drop out of the race, says Gunraj.
“We’ve heard from many people who are in leadership positions that they feel there’s a leaky pipeline. So oftentimes, they’ll say, ‘I was able to get there.’ But to be able to progress and move further and get to the highest levels and feel like ‘I’m really thriving,’ they found themselves dropping out.
“That could be because of childcare needs. That could be a motherhood gap, that when they become parents, mothers tend to decrease in pay and decrease in opportunities.”
While women might face this motherhood penalty, it’s different for males, she says.
“When men become fathers, they increase in opportunities and pay.”
Pipeline of potential female successors
While some jurisdictions have passed new laws to address the problem, more work needs to be done, says a senior HR leader.
“We’ve made some good progress in Canada,” says Angela Champ, senior vice-president human resources at Alpine Building in Delta, B.C., citing Ontario’s pay equity legislation and British Columbia’s Pay Transparency Act, which is a prelude to pay equity.
But “the actual progress within companies has been slower,” she says.
The CEO list revealed some ugly truths about corporate Canada, says Champ.
“When you look at that list of the 100 CEOs, you see how few women are on there and part of that is because some of the men have very long tenure so nobody’s going into that role, because the CEOs last a long time. But the other reason is because they haven’t grown that pipeline of potential female successors and so there tends to be that pay gap because you don’t have as many women coming up the ranks the same way.”
Women will leave organizations if they're underpaid, found another survey.
How to successfully promote women
So what could help women who are in the leadership pipeline succeed?
“It can be a lot of things, but mentorship programs, sponsorship programs, programs to help people skill up and if they had to take parental leave, be able to get some quick movement forward, even though they took the parental leave and it might have stymied their opportunities, that you have a pathway forward.
“Those types of things are just not in place in corporate Canada in a coherent and a big way,” says Gunraj.
Employers should also ensure that no discrimination exists in the organization, especially in how promotions are managed.
“Companies could do better by removing those biases of ‘She’s young, she’s going to get pregnant, she’s on leave or she’s already pregnant, and therefore, I can’t offer her a promotion.’ Or ‘She already had one baby and so I’m not going to offer her that expat assignment overseas, because she’s not going to want to move,’” says Champ.
“Don’t make assumptions. Why don’t you ask, and then set up your business in a way that allows for temporary stopgaps? So if you hire somebody, or promote somebody who’s pregnant, how to stopgap so that in the 12 or 18 months that she’s off, that you can fill that role until she’s ready to come back, rather than making judgments?
“That might help with some of the pay inequity that you see.”
As well, organizations need to prioritize equality by treating it as a business imperative, according to Gunraj.
“Organizations have to stop looking at this as something that is a nice-to-have, and as long as they see it as something that’s good to do or morally correct to do, it’s not enough. They have to see it as a bottom-line issue and see that when you start doing better here, you start doing better in your profits; you start doing better in your performance, [and] shareholders, stakeholders start to really see you as a leader and you as a worthy, top-performing business.”
How HR can promote greater equality
For HR, start with conducting an audit and an analysis of their pay by gender for each of the roles and identifying whether or where there are disparities, says Champ.
It’s also about doing market research on salaries for those roles for your jurisdiction, or across Canada, “and then making presentations based on data to the senior executive on why it’s important to correct this pay disparity, including a plan,” she says.
“Most senior executive CEOs or boards of directors are not going to want to correct pay disparities all at once because it’s going to be millions of dollars. But if an HR person can come with the data and the plan on how you can address these over two or three years, then HR can take a real leadership role in correcting this.”
