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August 29 2008 - A recent survey conducted for CareerBuilder.ca by Harris Interactive showed that almost a fifth of Canadian women respondents (23%) believed that they were being paid less than their male counterparts.

Conversely, the online survey of 247 male and 285 female full-time employees across Canada was conducted between May 22 and June 13, 2008 found that only 12% of male workers believed that they had lower salaries than female workers.

Women were also concerned about poorer career advancement opportunities than their male equivalents:

• 19% of female workers felt that males had more career advancement opportunities even when they were equally qualified
• 16% of women did not feel they had the same amount of job flexibility, and
• 16 per cent said that they received fewer opportunities for training and development

When asked why they thought men were paid more and given greater career advancement opportunities than they were, female employees said:

• Men are perceived as needing to have more money to support their families (41%)
• Men tend to be more aggressive in their compensation negotiations (35%)
• Men tend to get better or more high profile projects (33%)
• Management tends to show favoritism to members of the opposite sex (30%)
• Men tend to schmooze more with the boss (25%)

Remy Piazza, managing director of CareerBuilder Canada commented:

"Employers are constantly looking at ways to make their workplaces more balanced, however, this survey indicates that they still have some work ahead of them."