According to a new report, you haven't come a long way if you're a working woman in Canada.

Women have lost ground - not gained - when it comes to the amount they're paid when compared to men doing similar work.

The Canadian Labour Congress (CLC) report, Working Women: Still a Long Way from Equality, says it just doesn't pay to be a working woman in Canada.

Ten years ago, full-time, full-year working women made 72 cents for every dollar earned by men doing similar work. In 2005 - the latest figures available according to the report - that same full-time, full-year working woman earned just 70.5 cents for every dollar made by men in full-time, full-year jobs.

CUPE Local 39 president and Vancouver library technician Alexandra Youngberg is pushing to get the pay equity question addressed.

The lack of progress is even more alarming, adds the report, when factoring in that today's woman is more educated than her predecessor and delays having children in order to establish herself in the workforce.

"I think women tend to think that we've achieved equality in Canada," says Sue Genge, national representative for the CLC's women's department. "There are certainly more women in prominent positions than when I was young, so it looks like everything is hunky-dory. I guess it's the invisible inequality you don't see or think about when it comes to the big picture and that is what is in our report."

While the report does point out that women are moving into professional and skilled jobs in education, health care and other community and public services, it says that these women are still paid less than comparable men and are significantly under-represented in very well-paid jobs.

"More than three in four of the earners making at least $89,000 per year (the top five per cent of the Canadian workforce) are men, and men are still three times more likely than women to be senior managers," the report says. "Men still predominate in highly paid and senior management jobs, especially in the private sector."

One bright spot, however, can be found among unionized workers. The report shows that unions have made a significant dent in the gender pay gap, with unionized women earning 93 per cent as much as unionized men.

But unionization rates for women in the private sector are low, and lower than among men at 14 per cent compared to 23 per cent.

Even though women have done what they were told to do so they could earn more, it hasn't really made a difference, says Genge.

"In the past, women were paid less than men because they were less educated, but that's no longer the case. The majority of university graduates are women and 60 per cent of community college graduates are women," says Genge.

"In the past, they also said women don't make as much as men because we stay home to look after the kids. That still has a role to play, but fewer women are taking fewer years off work and the birth rate is way down. Women are having fewer children - 1.4 now, where it once was 2.4 - and now they're just taking one year off.

In the past it was five to six years, up until the kids went to school."

Still, it's not that women are paid less for doing the same job as men - that is against the law, says Genge.

Rather, the problem lies in undervaluing the value of women's work.

As an example, Genge points to staff who clean rooms in hotels - generally women - and she says they're often paid less than men who clean the hallways.

Alexandra Youngberg, a library technician in Vancouver, says society is under the impression that the whole pay equity issue was dealt with 30 years ago. She notes the CLC report states that women with post-secondary degrees have lost the most ground in the past 10 years - slipping to 68 cents for every dollar earned by men from 75 cents.

Rather, the problem lies in undervaluing the value of women's work. As an example, Genge points to staff who clean rooms in hotels - generally women - and says they're often paid less than men who clean the hallways.

Alexandra Youngberg, a library technician in Vancouver, says society is under the impression that the whole pay equity issue was dealt with 30 years ago. She notes the CLC report states that women with post-secondary degrees have lost the most ground in the past 10 years - slipping to 68 cents for every dollar earned by men from 75 cents.

"They translate the federal legislation and legislation in Ontario and Quebec, and they think we have it here (in British Columbia)," says Youngberg, who is also the president of CUPE Local 391 representing workers at the Vancouver Public Library.

"But these people don't realize that this hasn't happened to women in B.C. and that we are still making the 68 cents on the dollar."

The library's mostly-female workforce has five pay increments between each pay grade, she adds. "You don't find that in a male-dominated workforce," she says. "They either have one increment or at the most three increments. So basically, over the years you're pulling in less money because it takes longer to get to your maximum earnings. It also affects your pension."

To achieve these goals at the library - the union went out on strike last year in part because of pay equity concerns; it has since returned to work and is still seeking to get its pay equity issues addressed - Youngberg wants to see a gender-neutral evaluation system put in place that would measure work and see employees paid equally for similar work, even if they're employed in different city departments.

"That's what we're fighting to change - equal pay for work of equal value across sectors," says Youngberg.

The CLC's Genge says women across Canada are concerned over related workplace issues, including:

* Access to affordable, quality child care.

* The need to raise the minimum wage to at least $10 an hour.

* The need to change minimum labour standards so an hour of part-time work gets paid the same as an hour of full-time work.

* The modernization of the federal EI program, so people whose jobs no longer fit into the traditional nine-to-five mold - but work just as much - can access their benefits.

The CLC is running a year-long campaign to raise awareness and educate people about the situation.

"We want to talk to women and say this is the reality," says Genge. "And we need to talk to members of Parliament, both provincially and federally, to see what they will do.We need to make politicians know people in Canada don't find inequality acceptable."

(Laura Severs can be reached at laura@businessedge.ca)