At 03:14 PM 15/07/99 -0700, Michael P. wrote: >Bill's numbers concerning the earnings gap seem to show a smaller earnings gap >for me in Canada than in the U.S. I recently sent in a note about unions being >responsible for the lower Canadian women's earnings gap, compared to U.S. >women. Could unions be playing a similar role for men? What is a ballpark figure for earning disparity by race in the U.S. before and after 'correcting' for education etc. in a similar way as the study I quoted? I agree that higher unionization rate in Canada, especially in the public sector, is probably why the male-female earning gap is lower than the U.S. (assuming this is true). Unions have also undoubtedly reduced the gap between British-origin and other white men and other men. I used to work in the relatively high-wage forest industry here in B.C. and there is no doubt that many of my fellow workers who were Punjabi and Chinese and women were a) hired in the first place and b) promoted by seniority because our union, however unevenly, opposed discrimination by race and sex. Bill Burgess
