Male employees are paid much more than their women counterparts at UW, according to the list of Ontario’s highest paid public sector workers.
The Sunshine list, published toward the end of 2019, has a total of 1,445,448 entries for the year 2019. The Sunshine list is released by the Ontario government every year with names of all employees who earn $100,000 or more, to ensure transparency.
The highest paid employee of UW is president Feridun Hamdullahpur, whose annual income is $478,549.24.
Among the forty highest paid employees of UW, only eight are women. Joanne Shoveller, Vice-President, advancement, is the highest paid female UW employee. Her annual income is $317,278.29, displaying a difference of $161,270.95 between the highest paid male employee and highest paid female employee at UW.
Furthermore, the top four women hold positions such as Vice-President and Dean, making it evident that no female professor at UW has made it into the top 20, as opposed to 11 male professors who have.
On average, UW’s top ten male employees earn $324,207.37 while the average for the ten highest paid female employees is $269,382.29.
This means that the mean wage gap is $54,825.08 between the highest paid male and female employees.
UW was granted the title of one of the best diversity employers in Canada due to its decision of allocating funds to initiatives that advance and promote wage equality between women and men.
The university is also committed to an Equity Office, Provost’s Advisory Committee on Equity, Status of Women and Equity Committee, Indigenous Advisory Circle, and Working Group on Sexual and Gender Diversity (LGBTTQQIAAp).
Due to these initiatives, UW was recognised as one of Waterloo area’s top employers.
In the past, the university set three HeForShe goals to be achieved by 2020 and has already achieved or exceeded two of them. By 2017, of the people involved in STEM outreach activities at UW, 35 per cent were women, while the goal was set at 33 per cent.
Moreover, the proportion of women in faculty reached 30.1 per cent last year, 0.1 per cent above the goal.
Imprint reached out to the university and the Glow Centre for Gender and Sexual Diversity for a comment but did not get a response.
