New research released Monday shows there continues to be a persistent wage gap between men and women in Alberta.
The findings, conducted by Parkland Institute, were summarized in a fact sheet, titled 'Women's equality a long way off in Alberta'.
It shows Alberta women who work full-time, year-round, earn just 66 per cent of what men earn.
The research shows women now form 58 per cent of Alberta's undergraduate university population, and have made up over half of the university population since 1993.
However, those gains have not translated into a smaller wage gap between the two sexes.
Parkland Institute says female university graduates, employed year-round and full-time, bring in only 67 per cent of what Alberta men with university degrees earn.
In 2002, female university graduates earned 79 per cent of men's earnings, which researchers say demonstrated that the oilsands boom in Alberta had an impact on boosting men's earnings.
"We've always known that women are more impacted than men by recessionary periods," said Parkland's Institute's research director Diana Gibson. "Now we know that, at least in Alberta, they don't seem to do any better doing boom periods either."
Researchers also found about two-thirds of minimum wage earners are women, and 50 per cent of those women earn less than $25,000 a year -- compared to a third of Alberta men.
The findings are released on the same day the world acknowledges International Women's Day, a global day celebrating the economic, political and social achievement of women.
Minister of International and Intergovernmental Relations Iris Evans says International Women's Day helps to shed light on equality issues.
"I think this International Women's Day helps us focus on that and gives us the view to what is happening in women's issues."
Parkland Institute is a research network at the University of Alberta's Faculty of Arts.
With files from Serena Mah
