Evidence of meeting #25 for Status of Women in the 41st Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was gap.
A recording is available from Parliament.
NDP
The Chair NDP Hélène LeBlanc
If you could send us a report or a link specifically on the situation of aboriginal women that could enlighten the committee on this issue, we would very much appreciate it.
Director, Social and Aboriginal Statistics Division, Statistics Canada
The notes you have distributed mention a document titled Women in Canada, which contains a whole chapter on aboriginal women.
The Chair NDP Hélène LeBlanc
We will refer to it. Thank you very much for that information, Mr. Nault.
I will now yield the floor to Ms. O'Neill Gordon for seven minutes.
Conservative
Tilly O'Neill-Gordon Conservative Miramichi, NB
Thank you, Madam Chair.
I want to welcome our witnesses here this afternoon. Thank you for your great presentation. You've given us lots of information in your presentation already.
I just want to say, coming from the education system as well, that I agree that there would be more women working in the public sector, and we would have been highly unionized. But in New Brunswick, I can guarantee you that man or woman, we would be paid the same and it would be based on our qualifications and our years of teaching. So there would be no difference between a man or woman working as a teacher. We would be qualified, and we'd all get the same pay. I imagine it would be the same with the health-care workers. I was thinking of that when we were talking about it.
Now, as is expected, lots of information is gathered from different departments, and you would see that in your field, of course. I'm wondering how labour ministers at all levels of government make use of this labour information that is gathered.
Director, Labour Statistics Division, Statistics Canada
Well, generally every department has their own users. What we try to ensure is that there's equal access to the data. With basically every program, it's up to every user to decide what information they have use.... I know that labour market data is used at all levels of government to make decisions about various programs.
I probably couldn't give you exactly who does what with what.
Conservative
Tilly O'Neill-Gordon Conservative Miramichi, NB
No.
Is this information that's provided always reflective of both genders, or is it just males or women?
Director, Labour Statistics Division, Statistics Canada
Generally, I would say we know that for a huge proportion, if not all, of our statistics, most people do want it broken down by gender. This is why it's one of the key variables we make sure we have on all our household surveys, because we know there is an interest in looking at those two groups separately.
Conservative
Tilly O'Neill-Gordon Conservative Miramichi, NB
Mr. Nault, you mentioned how the housework is broken down.
I think you said there was four and a half hours of unpaid work. Could that also include senior citizens and senior care as well?
Conservative
Director, Social and Aboriginal Statistics Division, Statistics Canada
Do you mean a match?
Conservative
Tilly O'Neill-Gordon Conservative Miramichi, NB
Are there many women going into this area of working with seniors?
Director, Social and Aboriginal Statistics Division, Statistics Canada
What I was referring to was really unpaid work, unpaid help.
Of course, there is paid help and there are, I think, more women taking care of seniors. Either paid or unpaid, I think women take on a higher burden of supporting or caregiving.
Conservative
Tilly O'Neill-Gordon Conservative Miramichi, NB
They're working at being caregivers anyway, in either field.
Do you have any statistics on unpaid work amongst women in the workplace, for both single-parent and dual-parent families?
Director, Social and Aboriginal Statistics Division, Statistics Canada
Yes, the survey allows distinction between both, absolutely.
We can definitely look at the differences in unpaid work or housework, whether or not the women are in a couple household or a single household.
Conservative
Tilly O'Neill-Gordon Conservative Miramichi, NB
What does it tell us about the women's workloads in those fields?
Director, Social and Aboriginal Statistics Division, Statistics Canada
I don't have the stats in front of me.
It's a good question and I'm sure I can look for that.
Conservative
Tilly O'Neill-Gordon Conservative Miramichi, NB
You may not have information right in your hands about the longevity but in your opinion, from what you see on a daily basis, would you say there's more business or enterprises that are started by women or by men?
Director, Labour Statistics Division, Statistics Canada
I wouldn't hazard a guess. It would be a guess on my part.
We don't have information as to the gender of people starting businesses.
Liberal
John McKay Liberal Scarborough—Guildwood, ON
Madam Chair.
I have three questions about page 12 of your brief.
You chose median employment income as opposed to average employment income. The first question, is there a significant difference between the two? Why did you chose median as opposed to average income? What do you think is behind the difference?
The second question has to do with the wages and salaries graph, where it shows a big gap, in the order of $10,000 between men and women. Yet, among the self-employed, the gap is significantly narrowed. I was wondering what your explanation was for both the issue of average and median income, and also the significance of the disproportionality of the gap.
Intuitively, you would have said there's a gap, so why isn't it a big gap on both wages and salaries, and a big gap on self-employment? Or why isn't it a small gap on self-employment and a small gap on wages and salaries?
Director, Labour Statistics Division, Statistics Canada
I'll cover the median versus the average. For those who aren't familiar with the median, that's the point where 50% of the population is making more than that, and 50% are making less. It's right in the middle of the distribution.
We've moved to that in income because we find a few very high values will throw off the average, so when we really want to compare we tend to look at medians. But there's still a difference between the average income between men and women as well.