Canadian women earn 25% less in pay, bonuses and profit sharing, study says

Canadian women are paid 25 per cent less than men, and the gap widens further when it comes to bonuses and profit sharing, according to a new study.

The research, commissioned by payroll services provider ADP Canada, concluded that based on self-reported figures, Canadian women say they earn on average $49,721 a year compared with $66,504 for men.

The online survey, conducted by Leger Research, also found there were more females at the lower end of the pay spectrum, as 26 per cent of women reported earning less than $30,000 compared with just 14 per cent of men.

Women also earn nearly one-third less than men when it comes to additional compensation such as bonuses and profit sharing, with women reporting an average of $3,912 compared with men at $5,823.

The perception of pay equity also differed between females and males, with 62 per cent of women saying that they believe compensation is equal at their workplace compared with nearly 80 per cent of men saying so.

The online poll of 815 Canadians in full-time and part-time roles was conducted between Feb. 1 and 4 using Leger's online panel.

According to the polling industry's generally accepted standards, online surveys cannot be assigned a margin of error because they do not randomly sample the population.

A probability sample of the same size would yield a margin of error of plus or minus 3.4 per cent, 19 times out of 20.

Clarification: An earlier version of this story did not include what the margin of error for a probability sample of this poll would be.