Today is Equal Pay Day in Manitoba, a day that symbolizes how far into the next year the average woman must work in order to earn as much as the average man did in the previous calendar year, according to the Manitoba Equal Pay Day Coalition.
According to data in Statistics Canada’s Labour Force Survey, women in Manitoba have to work an average of 455 days to earn as much as men do in 365 – that’s an extra three months that women have to work to catch up to men.
As a dollar amount, Manitoba women earn just 80 cents on average for every dollar earned by men.
“Action to address the gender pay gap is needed to reduce poverty and ensure economic justice,” said Molly McCracken, Director of CCPA-Manitoba. “Women workers have less money to get by during the affordability crisis.”
While the Labour Force Survey does not include information on race and ethnicity, previous research by the CCPA, “Tired of Waiting: Rectifying Manitoba’s Pay Gap”, has demonstrated that the gender pay gap is approximately 20 percent worse for Indigenous, Black and racialized women, illustrating the effects of compounding discrimination.
The coalition noted that while there have been some important steps taken to boost women’s economic standing, such as raising wages for predominantly female early childhood educators and settling public sector contracts in women-dominated sectors, women’s earnings continue to lag behind.
The coalition highlighted that care work, performed primarily by women, and disproportionately by Indigenous, racialized and immigrant women, continues to be highly undervalued and overextended, despite being the glue that holds our economy together.
“Care work is essential to our economy,” said Kevin Rebeck, president of the Manitoba Federation of Labour. “Whether we are talking about child care, home care, long-term care personal support workers or schools, care work enables parents to go to work, people to live in their homes and a better quality of life for Manitobans. We need greater investments in the care economy to support women workers and grow our economy.”
The coalition is also calling for two legislative changes from the provincial government. The first is to modernize Manitoba’s pay equity legislation to ensure equal pay for work of equal value.
“Inaction on pay equity is unacceptable,” said McCracken. “Manitoba’s pay equity legislation hasn’t been dusted off and updated in decades, and only applies narrowly to parts of the public sector. A broader, modern approach is needed to reflect today’s economic realities, including the persistence of gender pay inequality.”
The second legislative change is to get rid of Manitoba’s current minimum wage law, which was brought in by the former Conservative government and has been kept in place by the current provincial government. The coalition noted that this law disproportionately hurts women workers by holding the minimum wage below a living wage level.
“Women make up the majority of all minimum wage earners, so they suffer the most when the minimum wage is not high enough to meet basic needs, like rent and groceries”, said Rebeck. Raising the minimum wage to a living wage would go a long way to reducing the gender pay gap and providing working women with a pathway out of poverty”.
The coalition urged governments to work together on a comprehensive strategy to eliminate the gender pay gap once and for all.
2026 Equal Pay Day Coalition - Statement Supporters:
Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA) - Manitoba
Canadian Labour Congress
Canadian Union of Public Employes (CUPE) – Manitoba
Child Care Coalition of Manitoba
International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE)
International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 435
Manitoba Association of Health Care Professionals (MAHCP)
Manitoba Child Care Association
Manitoba Federation of Labour
Manitoba Government and General Employees Union (MGEU)
Manitoba Nurses Union (MNU)
Manitoba Teachers’ Society (MTS)
Manitoba Federation of Union Retirees
Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) – Prairies
SEED Winnipeg
Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 2
United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 832
United Steelworkers (USW)
University of Manitoba Faculty Association (UMFA)
Winnipeg Association of Public Service Officers (WAPSO)
Winnipeg Labour Council