I want to talk about pay equity generally as it applies here. Obviously women in the federal public sector fought for a long time for pay equity. That has benefited other women as well, by the way. It started to raise wages in other places. The reality is that there are many of us sitting around this room who have been fighting for fair compensation for women for a long, long time.
During the 1980s, we made a little advance; now we've slipped back. On average we're at about 70.5 cents on the dollar for women. In terms of women generally across Canada, it's 64 cents on the dollar if you're a woman of colour, 46 cents on the dollar if you're an aboriginal woman, and women with disabilities are at about the national average but they have a 75% unemployment rate. I mean, that all fits in.
If you're a unionized worker, which many in the public sector are, it's about 93 cents on the dollar. Quite clearly, this is a prevention of women from advancing their wages in terms of the unionized sector, which will also bring the others up.
It affects unemployment insurance. Even when you look at full-time, full-year women workers, if we're earning less on average than male workers, when we're unemployed our EI benefits are going to be less as well.
It's a full circle of women who struggle to get pay equity. When they're unemployed, because they don't have pay equity, they don't have equity even in the EI system, because it's based on how much you've contributed. We've gone full circle there.
What's happened in terms of pay equity is absolutely unconscionable. It's not pay equity, it's pay inequality in the federal service. It hits women at every age and every stage of their life. It doesn't matter if you're an unemployed woman, a young woman, a woman who is in the middle of her career, or an older woman. If you've earned less throughout your life, you're going to have less of a pension. The only thing you have more of is a chance to live in poverty. That's what you have more of a chance to do.