Ontario midwives take province to court claiming they should earn 91% of what family physicians make

Toronto | The Association of Ontario Midwives has launched an application with the Human Rights Tribunal over what they say is a significant pay gap compared to doctors, the Toronto Star reported.The association, which represents about 800 midwives, claim that those in their profession should be earning about 91% of what salaried family physicians earn working in community health centres. According to a report prepared by independent pay equity expert Paul Durber in 2013, top-earning midwives bring in about $100,000 while those family physicians earn about $200,000.Midwifery is a predominantly female profession while those particular physician jobs are mostly male-dominated."It is my opinion that sex bias is operating in the unequal compensation being received by midwives," Durber told the Star.When the association filed its application in 2013, former health minister Deb Matthews said that funding for midwifery has increased fivefold since 2003 and their pay has rise about 33%. But the association has argued that prior to this, their salaries had been frozen for 17 of the 22 years that the profession had been regulated in Ontario, the Star reported.In the early 1990s, when the government began regulating midwives, a consultant determined that their compensation—paid exclusively by the province—should fall slightly below that of family physicians but above that of nurse practitioners. But the association alleged that those pay equity analyses stopped shortly thereafter and "very substantial" pay gaps began to appear in 1997.Katrina Kilroy, a Toronto midwife and the president elect of the Canadian Association of Midwives told the Star that midwives aren't looking for the same pay as physicians.“We’re just asking to be treated the same way, to have the same rights as other public sector workers, to be paid fairly and not to have a gender penalty on our pay just because they can get away with it,” she said.

Ontario midwives take province to court claiming they should earn 91% of what family physicians make

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