{"id":1160,"date":"2018-03-28T09:42:59","date_gmt":"2018-03-28T15:42:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/iamaw99.ca\/?p=1160"},"modified":"2018-03-28T11:18:27","modified_gmt":"2018-03-28T17:18:27","slug":"alberta-women-still-behind-on-international-womens-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/iamaw99.ca\/wordpressinstall\/general-information\/1160\/","title":{"rendered":"Alberta Women Still Behind on International Women’s Day"},"content":{"rendered":"

Alberta Federation of Labour calls on government to introduce Pay Equity, Universal Child Care, and Domestic Violence legislation to close the gap between Alberta\u2019s men and women
\nEdmonton \u2013 Despite recent strides in gender equality, more must be done to address Alberta\u2019s 60-cents-on-the-dollar pay gap \u2013 the highest pay gap in the country \u2013 and Alberta\u2019s high rates of domestic violence, says Alberta\u2019s largest worker advocacy organization.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

<\/p>\n

Since their election in 2015, Alberta\u2019s NDP government has taken a leadership role in elevating the status of women. With the introduction of protected leave for victims of domestic violence, strong funding for Alberta\u2019s women\u2019s shelters, and the installment of Canada\u2019s first gender-balanced cabinet \u2013 including a ministry dedicated to the Status of Women \u2013 Notley\u2019s government has made great strides in advancing women\u2019s rights. The increase in minimum wage has also increased women\u2019s equality, as two-thirds of Alberta\u2019s minimum wage earners are women.<\/p>\n

However, there will be no true equality without key measures to address the pay gap, including the introduction of pay equity legislation and universal child care. \u201cHigh quality, affordable child care is not only crucial to children\u2019s learning and development \u2013 it\u2019s also absolutely necessary to achieve gender equality,\u201d said Siobhan Vipond, Secretary Treasurer of the Alberta Federation of Labour. \u201cIn Alberta, 68% of all part-time jobs are occupied by women, and half of Alberta women working part-time cite inadequate or extremely costly child care as the reason.\u201d
\nAlberta mothers with children aged 0 to 5 have the lowest employment rates in the country, and the proportion of women with young children in the Alberta workforce has actually dropped since the 1990s. Alberta women also spend 35 hours each week \u2013 the equivalent to a standard full-time job \u2013 on unpaid work, including childcare, double the time of their male counterparts.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know the bulk of child care still falls to women, and women bear the economic brunt of career stagnation and hours reduction when they have children. This is on top of the gendered pay inequity women already experience. Alberta must introduce both pay equity legislation and universal child care to close the staggering pay gap, with women earning 60 cents on the dollar compared with men in our province.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alberta must also do more to protect victims of domestic violence. The introduction of protected job leave for women experiencing domestic violence, and allowing them to break leases early, are good first steps. But, the government must go further by making protected leave paid. \u201cWomen escaping domestic violence are already under a tremendous amount of strain, pressure, and fear,\u201d said Vipond. \u201cBy ensuring women are still paid while taking leave to escape domestic violence, moving themselves and their children out of harm\u2019s way, Alberta can take one small step to alleviate some of the strain.\u201d
\n—<\/p>\n

Alberta Federation of Labour continues to call on our governments to support women with Fair Start Alberta, a campaign to implement universal Early Childhood Education and Care that supports children, workers, women and families in Alberta. Read more at www.fairstartalberta.ca.
\nFor further information, please contact:
\nJanelle Morin, Director of Communications
\n780-278-3640 or jmorin@afl.org<\/p>\n

Source: Alberta Federation of Labor (AFL)\u00a0<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

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Alberta Federation of Labour calls on government to introduce Pay Equity, Universal Child Care, and<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1160","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general-information","category-local-news"],"featured_image_urls":{"full":"","thumbnail":"","medium":"","medium_large":"","large":"","1536x1536":"","2048x2048":"","chromenews-featured":"","chromenews-large":"","chromenews-medium":""},"author_info":{"info":["admin"]},"category_info":"General Information<\/a> Local News<\/a>","tag_info":"Local News","comment_count":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/iamaw99.ca\/wordpressinstall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1160","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/iamaw99.ca\/wordpressinstall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/iamaw99.ca\/wordpressinstall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/iamaw99.ca\/wordpressinstall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/iamaw99.ca\/wordpressinstall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1160"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/iamaw99.ca\/wordpressinstall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1160\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1238,"href":"http:\/\/iamaw99.ca\/wordpressinstall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1160\/revisions\/1238"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/iamaw99.ca\/wordpressinstall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1160"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/iamaw99.ca\/wordpressinstall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1160"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/iamaw99.ca\/wordpressinstall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1160"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}