Some (sort of) good news

With the holiday season approaching quickly I've been looking for a "good" topic to blog about. With various economists making wildly varying predictions for Canada's growth in 2011 and the ongoing problems in Europe it's been hard but a story in yesterday's Globe and Mail caught my eye.

The story in question reports that according to Statistics Canada Women's income has been growing faster than men's in Canada since 2000. The story goes on to report that between 2000 and 2008 average income for women rose 13% versus 7% for men which is a good thing. There is still though a wide gap in average incomes between men and women that see women make 71 cents for every dollar men make.

So while there is still a gap and thus room for improvement it's good to see that the gap in pay equity is shrinking. But it reminds me of a question I sometimes get on what TalentOyster can do for companies looking to shrink their own gender pay gap and the answer to that is truthfully not much.

Certainly we can help drive female candidates to your roles but addressing diversity related issues generally, and gender ones specifically in any organization starts with changing the culture of your organization. I previously wrote on how the compensation gap starts with the negotiation and hiring process and it's still a good example of where "everyday" biases, the kind of which we are not always aware of, contribute to the equity gap.

I often talk about the need to "make sure you are looking at everyone" but part of that means to be looking at everyone fairly. Do all the processes regarding hiring, compensation and career advancement at your organization really treat people equitably? Sometimes it's hard to recognize, mainly because a process "works" and has been in place for a long time that it's not actually fair. That the process "works" better for people who fit a certain image or in this case gender. I believe that a process that "works" but isn't looking at everyone makes for a process that actually doesn't work very well at all. When diversity in an organization works it works because it is an essential part of the organizations culture, not just a box we ticked off to make us feel better.

Stories like the one in the Globe show us that we are all making some progress and that is good, but they also show us we have a ways to go. As we approach a new year it would be my wish to see the progress continue so that the same story in December 2020 reports on how the pay equity gap in Canada has been closed. I don't know if that makes me too idealistic or not, but I think we can get there and I hope we will.