New Brunswick Coalition for Pay Equity

Guide for

Provincial Prebudget Consultations 2013

Note to the presenters

  • Presentations are usually very short.
  • Your presentation will raise awareness amongst the other people in the room.
  • The following points are only there to guide you. You probably will not be able to mention them all. Choose the ones you want to promote!
  • Please, tell us how it goes!

Issues

DECISIONS WHICH RESPECT EQUALITY

The economic decisions of our government must reflect our values. A recent study shows that 92% of Canadians support equality between men and women. In comparison, only 20% of people think that we should have a low income tax level, even if that means we have to cut in government expenses.

DEFINITION OF PAY EQUITY

Pay equity is an important tool to reach equality. It’s equal pay for work of equal value. It’s making sure that the value of predominantly female work is recognized and paid fairly.

THE 3 PRIVATE SECTOR GROUPS WHO GOT ANSWERS

Last year, the government announced 6.4 million dollars for pay equity. Shortly after, the results of the programs put in place by the government were finally revealed. We had been waiting for them since 2010. The methodology must be improved for the jobs with no male equivalent but until then, a few groups of employees were told they would get pay adjustments over a five year period. However, no mention was made of inflation. Will you adjust for inflation the “fair wages” determined by the government’s presentpay equity methodology for the employees of these three sectors in order to make sure that they don’t lose any spending power and thus cause more pay iniquity?

GROUP HOMES

The government has made a commitment to start the pay equity payments for group home employees in its 2013-2014 budget. The Coalition will follow this closely.

PUBLIC SECTOR

There is a pay equity act for the public sector now, but the government is late in implementing it. According to the law, the payments were supposed to start in April 2012. We want the government to give more financing to the Pay Equity Bureau et to put the necessary resources in place so that the job assessments are done according to recognized pay equity principles and as fast as possible.

TAXATION SYSTEM

As mentioned by many stakeholders over the past few months, the government must increase its income. That is particularly important for women since they offer the majority of health and education services, services that are often underpaid and which rely on governmental funding, whether in the public or private sector. Cutting these services would affect negatively the staff who provide these services but also the NB families which need them. Maintaining pay inequity to reduce the deficit would mean that women will bear the burden. The government must make sure it has the necessary income to fulfill our aspirations and values.

Progressive income tax is the fairest way to reduce the deficit. Like the Common Front for Social Justice, rather than saving money on workers’ wages, we suggest going back to the income tax levels of 2008, and we recommend introducing a new tax bracket of 21% on personal incomes exceeding $150,000. We also recommend returning to the tax level of 2008 for corporations, at 13%, and the 2011 level for small and medium-sized enterprises, at 5%.

A study conducted by the NB Advisory Council on the Status of Women showed that reducing the progressivity of income tax was more beneficial to men than women because they favour people with higher incomes and in average, women have lowerincomes than men. An increase in a sales tax would increase even more the gap between men and women, so we are against it as a source of government income.

A PAY EQUITY LAW FOR ALL OF THE PRIVATE SECTOR

We continue to ask for a law for the private sector. It’s an investment in equality, in our human resources and in our economy.

A study done by economist Ather Akbari has shown that the elimination of the discrimination in the wage gap between men and women would result in an increase of 226 million dollars in provincial and sales taxes and in savings reaching up to 60 million dollars in health care (income being one of the determinants of health.)

VOICE OF WOMEN

Since the vast majority of Canadians consider that equality between men and women is an essential value, we need to develop the means to work towards it in New Brunswick and everywhere in Canada. We strongly hope the government will commit to allocate sufficient funding to start and support the operations of a new mechanism which will ensure the voice ofNew Brunswick women.The Advisory Council on the Status of Women is missed and must be replaced by a new mechanism.

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