These disparities are amplified for women from marginalized communities – such as women living with disabilities, racialized women, Black women, Indigenous women, immigrant women, and 2SLGBTQI+ individuals – who are forced to navigate a labour market that exploits and discriminates against them at every turn.
The government made several positive changes to wages and benefits in 2022 that will benefit women workers, such as expanding employment insurance sickness benefits, raising the federal minimum wage, introducing paid sick leave, and announcing plans to automatically send the Canada Workers Benefit to people who qualified in the previous year. Canada also ratified International Labour Organization Convention 190 on violence and harassment in the world of work.
More federal action is needed to address the structural disadvantages and barriers that marginalized women face in the labour market. In particular, more attention and investment is needed to close the gaps in women’s employment opportunities and advancement, fair wages, and decent working conditions. Moreover, the federal government must finally take action to hold Canadian companies accountable for their environmental and human rights violations abroad.
