Saskatchewan women make less than 75 cents to a man's dollar

Saskatoon is the fifth worst of Canada's 25largest citiesif you are a woman, according to a new report by theCanadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.

Regina is slightly better, coming in eighth worst spot.

The report ranked the citiesbased on how women fared in comparison to their male counterparts.

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Kate McInturff,a senior researcher at the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, said the factors that were considered in the report included employment, poverty rates,political involvement and the wage gap.

"The report looks at the gapin how menand women are doing in cities across Canada. It looks at how they are doing in terms of jobs, income, health, education, and security," said McInturff.

"Although there are high rates ofemployment in Regina, the gap between men and women's employment rates is larger than average. There are jobs going around, but women aren't getting as many as men are."

Here is a list of the cities ranked in the study:
1. Victoria
2. Kingston, Ont.
3. London, Ont.
4. Quebec City
5. Gatineau, Que.
6. Montreal
7. Sherbrooke, Que.
8. St. John's
9. Vancouver
10. Halifax
11. Toronto
12. Kitchener-Cambridge-Waterloo, Ont.
13. Hamilton
14. Ottawa
15. Abbotsford-Mission, B.C.
16. Barrie, Ont.
17. Kelowna, B.C.
18. Regina
19. St. Catharines-Niagara, Ont.
20. Winnipeg
21. Saskatoon
22. Edmonton
23. Calgary
24. Oshawa, Ont.
25. Windsor, Ont.

Wage inequality

Another concern is the wage gap.In Regina, women make 73 cents for every dollar a man makesand in Saskatoon, women make 63 cents.

The report uses average income data from Statistics Canada to calculate the wage gap.

McInturff said the discrepancy in incomehurts everyone, not just women.

"We tend to live together, men and women, in households andin communities and when women are seeing that big of a discount in theirwages, that's hurting their household budget," said McInturff.

"That means they are spending less money in their communities."

In order to solve the wage gap, McInturff said that the study shows that there is a disconnect between the achievement of women and their position in society.

"There is still a bit of a disconnect whenwe see we have veryeducated women and high level of participation in the workforce, and yet still we are not paying women the same as we pay men and we still aren't electing women into office."

McInturff said there is a lot of research on how to mend the wage gap and create equality between the genders, and that it's possible at all levels of community.

She suggests that in order to find a solution, communities have open conversations about what works and where the concerns are.