<!– In this report, I will be investigating and visualising the gender wage gap in Canada within the last 30 years. Canada is a notably progressive nation. However, the gender pay gap is a persistent and complex global issue that even Canada continues to struggle with. This topic paints a picture of what strides a developed country, one that prides itself on social justice equality can make in the modern era.
By analysing data from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), this report aims to highlight how the wage gap has shifted over time and what factors have influenced its progression or stagnation. While policies promoting gender equality have been implemented at both the federal and provincial levels, disparities in pay between men and women remain evident across most sectors. These gaps are shaped not only by differences in occupation and industry but also by broader systemic issues, including employment trends, childcare responsibilities, or and difference of industries.
What makes this investigation especially compelling is the opportunity to assess whether the progress in Canada’s values and goals is measurable, or whether the country’s gender equality reputation is overrated. The study of the gender pay gap is vital as it assesses whether the nation holds these ideals for their attractiveness or puts its money where its mouth is.
Through data visualisation and trend analysis, this report will explore whether progress has been made, the rate of progress, and what lessons can be drawn for future policy. I will also be comparing Canada’s outcomes with that of a country that does not put such a fine point on the issue of gender pay. –>
2. Summary of the Data
year <- 1997:2015
wage_gap <- c(24.7, 24.9, 24.0, 23.9, 24.3, 24.0, 22.5, 22.7, 21.3, 21.1,
20.8, 20.5, 20.1, 19.0, 19.2, 19.5, 19.3, 19.2, 18.6)
# Create the scatter plot
plot(year, wage_gap,
main = "Gender Wage Gap in Canada (1997–2015)",
xlab = "Year",
ylab = "Wage Gap (%)",
pch = 16, # solid circles
col = "blue") # color of points
3. Evolution across Time
<!– The dataset reflects the country’s progress in reducing the gender pay gap. The wage gap began at 24.7% in 1997 and reached its peak of 24.9% in 1998. Following this , the gap began to decrease, though not uniformly each year.
In the early 2000s, the wage gap hovered around 24%, before beginning a more consistent downward trend starting in 2003. By 2005, the gap had dropped to 21.3%, and continued to decrease through the remainder of the decade, hitting 19% in 2010. This period of steady decline likely reflects economic policies that began to take stronger effect in reducing pay inequality.
From 2010 onward, the gap remained relatively stable but slightly fluctuated between 18.6 and 19.5%, suggesting progress was slowing. The lowest value in the dataset appears in 2015, at 18.6, making an overall decrease of 6.3% points from 1998’s peak.
Overall, the data shows a consistent long-term improvement in closing the wage gap, with the most significant reductions occurring between the early 2000s and 2010. However, the flattening trend after 2010 signals that further policy action may be needed to sustain and accelerate progress.
4o –>
# Load necessary packagelibrary(ggplot2)# Create the dataset manuallycanada_data <-data.frame(Year =1997:2015,Wage_Gap =c(24.7, 24.9, 24.0, 23.9, 24.3, 24.0, 22.5, 22.7, 21.3, 21.1,20.8, 20.5, 20.1, 19.0, 19.2, 19.5, 19.3, 19.2, 18.6))# Plot the bar chartggplot(canada_data, aes(x =factor(Year), y = Wage_Gap)) +geom_bar(stat ="identity", fill ="skyblue", color ="black") +labs(title ="Gender Wage Gap in Canada (1997–2015)",x ="Year",y ="Wage Gap (%)" ) +theme_minimal() +theme(axis.text.x =element_text(angle =45, hjust =1))
4. Comparison with Other Countries
<!–i have compared the dataset’s results for Canada with a fellow North American culture that has a different economic strength and social culture, Mexico.
Canada’s data from 1997 to 2015 shows a steady consistent decline in the wage gap, falling from 24.7% in 1997 to 18.6% in 2015. This suggests consistent progress over nearly two decades, with relatively low volatility between readings.
In contrast, Mexico’s data from 2005 to 2016 displays a lot of fluctuation in the wage gap values. The gap ranged from a low of 10% in 2011 to a high of 22.2% in 2008 with no clear downward trend. The values bounce significantly, suggesting a more unstable or inconsistent policy or economic environment impacting wage inequality.
Interestingly, while Canada consistently reported higher wage gap percentages than Mexico during overlapping years, Mexico’s lower values do not necessarily reflect greater gender equality. The variability in the Mexican data may point to structural issues in labor reporting, informal employment, or sectoral differences not captured in raw percentages.
In summary, Canada’s trend reflects slow but steady improvement, while Mexico’s data suggests uneven progress with sharp rises and falls, indicating the need for more stable and targeted wage equality measures. –>
5. Association With Other Economic or Political Factors.
<!– The federal Employment Equity Act, though introduced earlier, gained renewed attention in the 2000s, prompting increased enforcement and monitoring of pay practices among federally regulated employers. Parallel to this, provinces such as Ontario and Quebec enhanced their pay equity frameworks, making it mandatory for organizations to assess and correct gender-based wage differences. this is supported by the data as the 2000s saw a large decrease in the wealth gap.
In addition, various family and childcare policies were introduced or expanded during this period. For instance, the extension of paid parental leave in 2001 allowed more equitable sharing of caregiving responsibilities, enabling more women to remain in or return to the workforce with less career disruption. Investments in public childcare also helped increase women’s labor force participation, particularly in Quebec, which saw measurable improvements in wage equality.
Canada also ratified and reinforced its commitment to international standards on gender equality, such as those set by the United Nations and the International Labour Organization (ILO). These commitments influenced domestic policymaking and helped sustain political momentum for gender equity.
Lastly, advocacy by women’s organizations, unions, and civil society played a key role in pressuring governments to act, raising public awareness, and keeping gender wage inequality on the political agenda throughout this period.–>
<!–In conclusion, the analysis of Canada’s gender wage gap from 1997 to 2015 shows a steady decline from 24.7% to 18.6%, indicating gradual progress in closing the earnings gap between men and women. The trend suggests that policy efforts, such as pay equity legislation and improved parental leave, may have contributed to this improvement. The data is complete with no missing values, making the year-to-year comparison reliable.
However, there are some limitations. The dataset only includes the overall wage gap percentage and does not break it down by factors such as occupation, industry, race, education, or employment type. These factors are important to fully understand the causes of the wage gap and where inequalities still exist. Future analysis should include more recent data and explore these additional variables to provide a clearer and more detailed picture of gender-based wage inequality in Canada and how it may be changing over time.
–>i have enlisted the help of chatgpt in my numerous attempts to debug the code. i was unfortunate as i could not manage the problems in it most which revolved around the link to the dataset and therefore resorted to manual datasets. i also used chatgpt to help me render and save the project.
