A commentary on workplace sexual affairs and possible pay equity problems
My Canada commentaries are getting more difficult to write because subject matter like politics everywhere is repeating. For instance how many real programs or projects are proposed or initiated by all levels of government creating discussion. Since attack is the only sense of political direction very few it seems become more then suggestions. The other party is always trying to eliminate public favour for any proposal. The routine it seems is to destroy even needed or wanted new legislation suggested which result in heated, angry rebuttal by opposition parties or alternatively lashing out by the politicians proposing the idea. The art of negotiation for the good of the masses is all but dead. Attack the other party credibility regarding proposed changes and upgrades or if that isn’t working attacking the other side’s members reputation with accusations of impropriety is now the political norm. That is happening at most if not all levels of elected government.
MEN AND SEXUAL ASSAUL
In that respect there aren’t many men or women for that matter that don’t have something in their background that could be exploited as sexual negatives even if it is only making a statement such as “go (something) yourself” or some other off-color remark. An example might be a remark while two people are sharing dinner during a conference at a table in a nearby restaurant as imply a friendly gesture. The conversation could lead to an accusation of impropriety for instance if it happened to involve one of them saying they are in the throes of having marital problems such as a partner’s suspected infidelity. In all likelihood if the other person indicates a willingness to spend more time with the complaining person without any semblance of wanting things to go any further than friendship the situation might be deemed a sexual proposition leading to a scourge of social media accusations.
If one of those sharing that dinner were to rise to a prestigious position a few years later and the other person happened to be involved with another political faction looking to discredit the long ago dinner partner the possibility of claiming an inappropriate sexual suggestion might not be beyond the realm of possibility. That’s not to say the accusations surfacing since the “me too” scenario began are all false. The main reason many people do not believe some happened is the time lapse between when the allegation was supposed to have happened, the reason the accuser does not want to be identified in many cases and why the person not only didn’t file a complaint at the time, but often admitted going back to the accused and even returned and allowed another advance to occur after the initial alleged impropriety.
There are circumstances when the aggrieved party should rightfully complain after the fact but there are alternative means to have the complaint heard aside from involving police directly, although the law, even court might need to be involved eventually. Reputations will always be shattered when such cases arise but in all instances the act must be the reason for public airing not a desire to hurt another person’s reputation or get even due to personal rejection or some other reason.In the past the police were often, if not usually, reluctant to pursue sexual accusations unless rape was evident. Even spousal abuse was often overlooked but recently most cases attributed to sexual behavior or spousal abuse are taken seriously by all police agencies. Whether that includes the way those agencies react to Indigenous citizen accusations is still far from certain as indicated by the recent murder acquittals in Saskatchewan and Winnipeg involving Indigenous youth. That’s another issue and all the details must be made public before the whole situation is revealed which will probably never happen since jury findings are not subject to public scrutiny. Nor should they be since sitting as a juror is a very personal matter not one that should ever become public fodder after the trial ends.
Then there is the matter of media practices now the social media is such a powerful entity. It is pretty difficult to read, see or hear about any issue without exposure to reporter let alone columnist opinions. The reason of course being anyone can get a personal opinion out on one of the social media sites without identifying themselves so in that respect why shouldn’t media people be allowed the same right when they can be identified. The only difference is media people usually research the subject to be as certain as possible the comments are truthful. Social media commentary is based mostly on supposition even by the most powerful man in the world currently elected as President of the United States.
The never ending sexual assault accusations on TV seem aimed at celebrities or other high income earners for the time being. That makes sense since there is a great deal of money that can be accessed in that area. With accusations dating back a quarter of a century or more in some cases it doesn’t seem logical the accused will suffer much inconvenience. Except of course losing reputation and the opportunity to earn more money doing their thing, whatever that might be at his time. Maybe the victims after being paid off will even find a way to take over the enterprises those disgraced individuals operated for a while.
The situation seems weird to say the least since it is doubtful those high-powered rich individuals will simply take the beating and disappear. Some of the accusers could be devastated to such a degree the public will feel sorry for them and wonder if winning in this case is worth the follow-up bound to happen. As the courts haven’t been involved will the end justify the means when taking on the rich and powerful in the world’s richest society? That is doubtful too.
Do the accusers and supporters truly believe the end of sexual assault by men after being part of the human makeup since caveman times will end by demolishing the reputation of the rich and famous, and even not so famous,? It is hard to imagine woman’s rights and privileges will supersede those of the male in the world even if women make inroads at this point. It has to be taken into consideration that women in North America couldn’t even vote a century ago or so. Attempting to destroy the other gender from the top down based on sexual practices doesn’t seem like a good idea.
What will the end result look like when some of the accused high profile males decide to retaliate causing unforeseen and massive problems between some men and women. Such a scenario could spread well past the people currently taking the initiative to compare many differences in the way society has treated women. The problem almost reflects the way the same society has treated Canada’s Indigenous nation over the years.
PAY EQUITY
Men make more money than women and according to every female columnist and reporter it must change. How that change will occur is a dilemma if the current Canadian financial position changes. For employees working together in industry, offices and some other sectors the situation is probably slowly changing. However slow change is not acceptable these days as witnessed by climate change especially in the Arctic. But that’s a subject for a future article.
The difference in wages paid to men as opposed to the lower rate to women is confusing. A recent Maclean’s magazine article stated the gap ranges from 31% down to 26% fulltime working women according to statistics Canada to 13% in gender factors such after taking in such factors as occupation, education, job tenure, province of residence and union status. But even taking all of those items into consideration an 8% gap still remains. Rather than combining a decease in male income while increasing female rates to match the difference the “me too ´movement where the complaint originated most recently is dictating matching the higher rate is the only solution.
Bringing the female rate even with male earnings makes sense since women now do the job as well as men and better at times. The one factor not surfacing so far is the matching of the multi-million dollar executive salaries mostly awarded to male executives. If female executives usually if not always paid substantially less than their male counterparts become part of the issue the cost will undoubtedly have an affect on corporate earnings and profits. Another factor in the world of executive earnings is profit sharing which is likely only a faction of the amount paid to men currently. Will that be considered unequal payments? Conversely if NAFTA collapses and Donald Trump increases attacks on the Canadian economy involved with American trade the affect might be a radical lowering of the Canadian standard of living. Such a scenario might necessitate a change of thinking. Even Ontario raising minimum wage rates had an adverse effect on employment and retail prices. Imagine the effect male female income parity might create on Canada’s economy taking into consideration both government and person debt levels.
MEN AND SEXUAL ASSAUL
In that respect there aren’t many men or women for that matter that don’t have something in their background that could be exploited as sexual negatives even if it is only making a statement such as “go (something) yourself” or some other off-color remark. An example might be a remark while two people are sharing dinner during a conference at a table in a nearby restaurant as imply a friendly gesture. The conversation could lead to an accusation of impropriety for instance if it happened to involve one of them saying they are in the throes of having marital problems such as a partner’s suspected infidelity. In all likelihood if the other person indicates a willingness to spend more time with the complaining person without any semblance of wanting things to go any further than friendship the situation might be deemed a sexual proposition leading to a scourge of social media accusations.
If one of those sharing that dinner were to rise to a prestigious position a few years later and the other person happened to be involved with another political faction looking to discredit the long ago dinner partner the possibility of claiming an inappropriate sexual suggestion might not be beyond the realm of possibility. That’s not to say the accusations surfacing since the “me too” scenario began are all false. The main reason many people do not believe some happened is the time lapse between when the allegation was supposed to have happened, the reason the accuser does not want to be identified in many cases and why the person not only didn’t file a complaint at the time, but often admitted going back to the accused and even returned and allowed another advance to occur after the initial alleged impropriety.
There are circumstances when the aggrieved party should rightfully complain after the fact but there are alternative means to have the complaint heard aside from involving police directly, although the law, even court might need to be involved eventually. Reputations will always be shattered when such cases arise but in all instances the act must be the reason for public airing not a desire to hurt another person’s reputation or get even due to personal rejection or some other reason.In the past the police were often, if not usually, reluctant to pursue sexual accusations unless rape was evident. Even spousal abuse was often overlooked but recently most cases attributed to sexual behavior or spousal abuse are taken seriously by all police agencies. Whether that includes the way those agencies react to Indigenous citizen accusations is still far from certain as indicated by the recent murder acquittals in Saskatchewan and Winnipeg involving Indigenous youth. That’s another issue and all the details must be made public before the whole situation is revealed which will probably never happen since jury findings are not subject to public scrutiny. Nor should they be since sitting as a juror is a very personal matter not one that should ever become public fodder after the trial ends.
Then there is the matter of media practices now the social media is such a powerful entity. It is pretty difficult to read, see or hear about any issue without exposure to reporter let alone columnist opinions. The reason of course being anyone can get a personal opinion out on one of the social media sites without identifying themselves so in that respect why shouldn’t media people be allowed the same right when they can be identified. The only difference is media people usually research the subject to be as certain as possible the comments are truthful. Social media commentary is based mostly on supposition even by the most powerful man in the world currently elected as President of the United States.
The never ending sexual assault accusations on TV seem aimed at celebrities or other high income earners for the time being. That makes sense since there is a great deal of money that can be accessed in that area. With accusations dating back a quarter of a century or more in some cases it doesn’t seem logical the accused will suffer much inconvenience. Except of course losing reputation and the opportunity to earn more money doing their thing, whatever that might be at his time. Maybe the victims after being paid off will even find a way to take over the enterprises those disgraced individuals operated for a while.
The situation seems weird to say the least since it is doubtful those high-powered rich individuals will simply take the beating and disappear. Some of the accusers could be devastated to such a degree the public will feel sorry for them and wonder if winning in this case is worth the follow-up bound to happen. As the courts haven’t been involved will the end justify the means when taking on the rich and powerful in the world’s richest society? That is doubtful too.
Do the accusers and supporters truly believe the end of sexual assault by men after being part of the human makeup since caveman times will end by demolishing the reputation of the rich and famous, and even not so famous,? It is hard to imagine woman’s rights and privileges will supersede those of the male in the world even if women make inroads at this point. It has to be taken into consideration that women in North America couldn’t even vote a century ago or so. Attempting to destroy the other gender from the top down based on sexual practices doesn’t seem like a good idea.
What will the end result look like when some of the accused high profile males decide to retaliate causing unforeseen and massive problems between some men and women. Such a scenario could spread well past the people currently taking the initiative to compare many differences in the way society has treated women. The problem almost reflects the way the same society has treated Canada’s Indigenous nation over the years.
PAY EQUITY
Men make more money than women and according to every female columnist and reporter it must change. How that change will occur is a dilemma if the current Canadian financial position changes. For employees working together in industry, offices and some other sectors the situation is probably slowly changing. However slow change is not acceptable these days as witnessed by climate change especially in the Arctic. But that’s a subject for a future article.
The difference in wages paid to men as opposed to the lower rate to women is confusing. A recent Maclean’s magazine article stated the gap ranges from 31% down to 26% fulltime working women according to statistics Canada to 13% in gender factors such after taking in such factors as occupation, education, job tenure, province of residence and union status. But even taking all of those items into consideration an 8% gap still remains. Rather than combining a decease in male income while increasing female rates to match the difference the “me too ´movement where the complaint originated most recently is dictating matching the higher rate is the only solution.
Bringing the female rate even with male earnings makes sense since women now do the job as well as men and better at times. The one factor not surfacing so far is the matching of the multi-million dollar executive salaries mostly awarded to male executives. If female executives usually if not always paid substantially less than their male counterparts become part of the issue the cost will undoubtedly have an affect on corporate earnings and profits. Another factor in the world of executive earnings is profit sharing which is likely only a faction of the amount paid to men currently. Will that be considered unequal payments? Conversely if NAFTA collapses and Donald Trump increases attacks on the Canadian economy involved with American trade the affect might be a radical lowering of the Canadian standard of living. Such a scenario might necessitate a change of thinking. Even Ontario raising minimum wage rates had an adverse effect on employment and retail prices. Imagine the effect male female income parity might create on Canada’s economy taking into consideration both government and person debt levels.