Following the work of a task force formed back in November 2020, historic gender pay gaps among the ranks of the University of Windsor's most senior female academics and librarians are being addressed.
The task force found a gender pay gap for senior librarians and full professors, and the report also states female employees at the highest teaching and librarian ranks are paid less than their male counterparts at a rate that, on average, exceeds $1,000 per month.
This gender pay gap was found to increase with time since tenure.
Dr. Lori Buchanan says the recommendations made by the task force will be implemented, and the process will continue until this gap is eliminated.
"So what that says, and I think this is important, is we're on the right track. Now women are being paid, like there's parity, whereas historically there wasn't."
The report also notes that 41 of the 100 longest-serving faculty members are women, but only 19 women are among the top 100 earners at the university.
To address this inequity, Dr. Buchanan says an algorithm has been developed for the purpose of compensating female academics and librarians commensurate with years since tenure.
This algorithm, when applied across the compensation of all top-ranked female academics as of 2020, results in a reduction of the average gender pay gap from $13,528 to $92.
"Women who were hired let's say 30 years ago got a bigger boost to their salary than women who were hired 10 years ago. I will say that most universities in Canada have found a different way of dealing with this problem and they've just given some amount of money to every woman on campus and that's not doing anything to increase equity. I think we've done a really nice job with this," Dr. Buchanan said.
Monitoring scans will be conducted every two years by University's Office of Institutional Analysis to ensure gender pay parity continues.
Dr. Buchanan says she's already heard from some of her female graduate students about what kind of impact this kind of initiative can have moving forward.
"They felt really hopeful, and I'm hopeful that the changes that were made at the University of Windsor are reflective of what's going to happen at other universities across Canada. Eventually we'll get to parity across the board, that's what I'm hopeful for and that's what my students are hopeful for."
The task force, which was a collaboration between the Windsor University Faculty Association and university administration, was formed by President and Vice-Chancellor Rob Gordon following senate discussions over employment equity to examine the issue and make recommendations.