Wage gap narrows between male, female professors: StatsCan

Men now earning less than before, women not necessarily earning more

More women are teaching full-time in Canadian universities, and although they still earn less on average than their male counterparts, the difference in salaries has narrowed, according to a new Statistics Canada study.

The study, The evolution of male-female wage differentials in Canadian universities: 1970 to 2001, found that among full-time professors who began their jobs in the 1960s, men earned approximately $10,000 to $15,000 more per year than women.

That wage differential dropped dramatically with men who started work since the mid-1980s earning approximately $5,000 more than women.

The difference in salaries narrowed because male professors in more recent years have earned less throughout their career than their predecessors did. Therefore women gained ground, not because they were earning more, but because men were earning less.

The study also found that the male-female differences were smaller in schools with seniority-based pay systems than in those with merit-based pay systems.

The study also noted that the number of women teaching full-time in Canadian universities has increased. Between 1970 and 2001, the percentage of women teaching full-time at Canadian universities more than doubled from 13 per cent to 29 per cent.

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