Moncton – According to Wendy Johnston, “On the whole, we can say that the situation of women in New Brunswick did not change a lot in the last year. The gains made were not very impressive.”
Johnston is the author of the “2015 Update: Women and Poverty in New Brunswick,” published by the New Brunswick Common Front for Social Justice for International Women’s Day.
Johnston notes the small gains made in 2014:
The gender wage gap has closed a little
Women’s wages in certain publicly-funded private care sectors increased
The hourly salary of unionized women is higher than men
The percentage of women working part-time has decreased
The percentage of women working for minimum wage has also slightly decreased. However, single mothers on social assistance did not make any significant gains.
The Common Front is proposing a number of actions that would have a real impact in reducing the poverty of women. The actions include:
Raising social assistance rates above the poverty line for everyone;
Addressing the income needs of older women living on their own by increasing the Guaranteed Income Supplement for single individuals;
Implementing a national public system of early learning and child care;
Implementing pay equity in the public and private sectors;
Implementing a monitoring system to measure progress on poverty and gender.
“We have a new government that made specific promises during the last election. Some changes that will help reduce poverty and recognize women’s rights have already been introduced. We hope that the government will continue in this direction in the years ahead,” concludes Johnston.