Status of Women committee  If you look at the employment equity annual report it would show the representation gap at the executive level. That would be where you would have—

Status of Women committee  That is what they said.

Status of Women committee  Well, unionization does, for sure, because it's just the basic fact that they have somebody there to represent them, whether they're experiencing harassment or discrimination, which can actually prevent them from prospering because they leave the workforce if they're experiencing that.

Status of Women committee  Along with that, one of the things we're quite concerned about—talking about cuts—is the cuts to the Status of Women, where 12 of the 16 offices have been closed. That was a place where funding was given for advocacy groups, but also research. So it's really important to have that back again, to be able to figure out what the barriers are.

Status of Women committee  —because there is a wage gap. Thirty-three per cent of women are unionized. The Canadian Labour Congress did this study, based on Statistics Canada 2012 data, I believe.

Status of Women committee  The federal public sector actually has champions and committees for three of the four equity groups: aboriginals, persons with disabilities, and racialized or visible minorities, as they're called. One of the things we are recommending in our more detailed submissions is that there should be champions and committees for women as well, although that's not ideal, and we have some criticisms of that system.

Status of Women committee  Or visible minorities, as they're called.

Status of Women committee  There are only four equity groups under the Employment Equity Act.

Status of Women committee  I was going to give you some statistics. If you look at the Treasury Board's annual employment equity report, they actually have a table that describes it by wage. I did a really quick comparison. I think something like 44% of women make less than, maybe, $59,999, compared to the percentage of all employees who make less than that, which is something like 30 or 34.

Status of Women committee  That's for women who are unionized and women who are not unionized—

Status of Women committee  It actually shows that unionized women earn $6.65 more per hour than women not in a union. As a result, they figured out that $552.5 million per week goes into women's pockets to be used for other things. The average wage for a unionized woman is $26.32. The average wage for women without a union is $19.16.