Gender pay gap in Canada’s banking sector at 18.4 per cent, data shows

Female employees in Canadian banks earn 18.4 per cent less per hour in wages than their male colleagues, according to data made public by the federal government.

Female employees at Canadian banks and financial institutions earn 18.4 per cent less per hour in wages than their male colleagues, according to newly released data by the federal government, even as gender pay gaps have narrowed in the country.

Among all the federally regulated private sector industries, banking and financial services have the widest hourly gender wage gap at $0.82, data from 2021 on the the Equi’Vision website that was launched Friday showed. In other words, for every $1 a man makes in the sector, a woman on average makes 82 cents.

The data compares overall compensation by group, calculating the mean hourly wage earned by women versus men as a whole rather than examining the gap in compensation for a certain position or role.

In comparison, the communications sector, which includes radio and television broadcasters, has a 11.4 per cent wage gap between men and women, with female employees earning $0.89 less in hourly wages.

In the transport sector, which comprises air, rail, bus and water transportation companies as well as postal service and courier postal services, there is a smaller wage gap of 8.4 per cent. Women working in the transportation sector earn $0.92 less in hourly wages compared to men.

While the pay gap in Canada has been slowly narrowing over the years, male employees continue to earn more than their female counterparts, according to Statistics Canada.

On average, women workers earn 11.1 per cent less per hour than men, the most recent StatCan data from 2021 showed.

Meanwhile, the proportion of women in the workforce is growing.