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— all statistics are from Closing the Gender Wage Gap: A Background Paper from the Ontario Ministry of Labour

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Since taking power in February 2013, her government has pushed many policies developed through an overtly feminist lens. Most recently, she’s announced plans to close the gender wage gap — the fact that women still make, on average, 73 cents for every dollar a man earns in Ontario, for women of colour it’s as low as 63 cents. Her government has made some important moves, but on the eve of International Women’s Day, her province’s largest public sector union is questioning Wynne’s commitment to close the gap.

“In reality, she’s made the problem worse,” Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU) President Warren “Smokey” Thomas said in a new radio ad. He continues: “She’s driving the wages of over half a million women who work in the public sector… it’s never OK to discriminate and all women in Ontario deserve better.”

The last line there is a pointed dig to the title of Ontario strategy to combat sexual violence — It’s Never OK — and its edgy ads that went viral last year. And the ads are already blaring out of commuters’ radios across the province and will for at least two weeks, Thomas said. The union has spent at least $250,000 on the spots.

For Thomas, the government’s commitment to public sector wage freezes or even the more modest increases in recent talks — all offset by other changes to contracts — is hurting women the most. A second spot uses a female announcer to make the same claim: The public service is disproportionately female — about 63 per cent according to Statistics Canada — so cuts to wages and jobs in that sector disproportionally affect women.