Launch of campaign to bring Pay Equity to all Ontario women:  20th Anniversary – Jan. 17, 2008

Please join the Equal Pay Coalition at Queen’s Park on Jan. 17, 2008 at 10:30 a.m. to launch the 2008 campaign. Ontario's Pay Equity Act is now 20 years old. While progress has been made, women still earn, on average, 29 per cent less than men. 

The Coalition will be presenting postcards signed by thousands of women calling upon the government to end gender-based pay discrimination by supporting, strengthening and revitalizing pay equity enforcement. In addition to this general request, the Coalition and these Ontario women are calling for the Government specifically to:

1.   increase the minimum wage to $10 per hour as
a pay equity down payment for vulnerable women workers;

2.   fully fund pay equity adjustments owed to public sector women working across Ontario; and

3.  fully fund the Pay Equity Commission, the Hearings Tribunal and legal support services for women workers.

The leaders of all three political parties will be asked to attend at the Queen's Park steps at 11:00 a.m. to outline their 20th Anniversary plans for 2008 and the years thereafter - We want to know what the Government and opposition parties specifically intend to do to strengthen and revitalize pay equity enforcement and close Ontario's gender pay gap.

Help support the campaign to bring pay equity to all Ontario women throughout their working careers and into retirement. 

Where: Queen's Park - Front of Legislative Building
10:30 am Queen’s Park - - start to assemble and display the signed Pay Equity Campaign Postcards

When: 11:00 a.m. - Opening Remarks by Mary Cornish, Chair, Equal Pay Coalition - Opportunity for Remarks by invited Premier and Leader of Liberal Party, Dalton McGuinty, Leader of NDP - Howard Hampton and Leader of Progressive Conservatives - John Tory. 

11:15 a.m.  - handing of signed cards by Ontario Women to the Government and concluding remarks by Mary Cornish.

A Media Conference will take place at 10:30 a.m. in the Queen's Park Media Centre where the Coalition will brief the media on the 20th Anniversary campaign. The media will then be asked to join the Coalition, the assembled participants and party leaders on the front steps of the Legislature at 11:00 a.m.

Please come and be part of this event. We are encouraging  everyone - grandmothers, mothers, fathers, daughters to show up and help hand the cards to the government. Pay Equity benefits everyone.  For further information call: Jan Borowy 416-985-2069, Judy Wilkings, 416-579-5780 or Mary Cornish 416-964-5524.