Sex

After seeing their rates of employment fall through much of the 1990s, the job prospects for 'core-age' men (aged 25 to 54) began to brighten again at the end of the decade. Women, on the other hand, saw continued growth in their employment rates and their paycheques throughout the decade.

Nevertheless, on average, women still earn less than men. The hourly wage paid to women in 2001 was only 81% of that paid to men. This earnings gap widens even further with average annual earnings: women working full time, full year in 2001, for example, pulled in only 72% of what their male counterparts did. This is an improvement, however, on women's earnings from 30 years earlier. In 1967, for example, women working full year and full time earned 58% of what men did. The gap between full-time workers is larger for annual earnings than for hourly wages, partly because men work more hours each week than women. From 1976 to 2000, men worked about four hours more each week than women. From 2000 to 2002, the gap dropped to slightly below four hours.  

Overall, the wage gap can be partly explained by the fact that men often have more job-related experience and training than women, tend to be in higher-paying careers, have longer job tenure and work more hours. They also tend to work in jobs with more supervisory duties.