Frequently Asked Question: What is the difference between employment equity programs and affirmative action?

Employment equity programs are used in Canada to promote equality in the workplace. They tend to focus on integrating four under-represented groups in Canadian society: women, visible minorities, aboriginals, and persons with disabilities. In order to determine whether an organization is properly using an employment equity program, it is important to look at the type of job and the physical or other skills that the particular job requires instead of focusing on the traditional gender of those who perform the job. Naturally, some jobs may tend to have more males or more females depending on the particular type of work or skills. Therefore, employment levels may not be representative of the population at large, and yet still be equitable under an employment equity program. The same analysis of employee demographics can be applied to the three other large minority groups in Canada.

Employment equity in Canada differs greatly from American affirmative action programs, which are based on a quota system. A quota system attempts to ensure that all corporations have a specified number of minority group individuals working for them, with that number being determined by each groups’ percentage of the general population. Both systems have their pros and cons. Since affirmative action tends to focus on numbers of workers by disadvantaged group whereas employment equity focuses on equity by type of skill equivalents in and between professions, a successful affirmative action program gets a more representative workforce in each profession whereas a successful employment equity program gets a more representative workforce in general even though a specific profession may be unrepresentative of a particular minority.