Expectation vs Reality Gap May Explain Canada’s Gender Pay Gap

In Canada, Equal Pay Day marks the point in the year when, on average, a woman must continue working to earn what a man earned by December 31 of the previous year. In 2026, that day fell on April 14 — roughly three and a half months of additional work for women compared with men.

Researchers point to many structural and situational causes behind the persistent gender pay gap. Some critics argue the gap stems from individual choices or biological differences, but Statistics Canada reports that in 2025 women aged 15 and older earned 88 cents for every dollar earned by men, an increase from 82 cents in 1997. While this indicates change over time, the improvement is incremental and measured in cents across decades.

A clue in job search data

Job search activity can shed light on how pay disparities form. In the last quarter of 2025, online job platform JobLeads analyzed activity from more than 36,000 Canadian users. The platform’s findings highlight patterns in how men and women search, apply and set salary expectations — patterns that help explain parts of the earnings gap. Key insights from that analysis include differences in salary expectations, the types of roles applied for, and application completion rates.

Women’s upper salary expectations were 34% higher than men’s

JobLeads found that the average upper salary expectation reported by men was $121,488, while women’s average maximum expectation was $162,492. This finding contradicts the notion that women earn less primarily because they fail to ask for high salaries. Women, on average, reported higher salary ceilings than men in this dataset.

Women applied for more part-time work, and jobs that require “soft skills”

Women on JobLeads applied for part-time roles more often than men — 33% of women versus 23% of men. One clear reason is caregiving responsibilities: women remain more likely to shoulder childcare and eldercare duties, which can make part-time or flexible schedules necessary.

Women also applied to a greater share of roles emphasizing so-called soft skills — such as communication, empathy and teamwork — with 31% of women’s applications targeting those roles compared with 28% for men. Socialization plays a role: soft skills are frequently encouraged in girls and women and often show up in women’s skill profiles on professional networks. Unfortunately, many employers value technical, measurable skills higher than emotional or interpersonal skills, and jobs centered on soft skills frequently pay less than comparable technical roles.

Women applied for jobs with a 4% lower median salary than men

The JobLeads data also showed that in some sectors, women applied for roles with lower median salaries than men. In finance and legal industries, women’s selected roles had median salaries about 10% and 6.9% lower than those men applied for, respectively — averaging out to more than $3,000 in difference. In contrast, jobs in marketing, media and human resources showed parity in median salaries between men and women, which may reflect the greater role of soft skills in those fields or an industry-wide compression of pay.

Fewer women submitted applications to jobs they clicked on

One striking behavioral difference was in application follow-through. More than three-quarters of men (76%) submitted applications after clicking on a job listing, compared with 64% of women. That 12-percentage-point gap may reflect what JobLeads describes as an “expectation-to-reality collapse” — women may hold high salary expectations but ultimately self-select out of applying when the job posting lacks clear compensation or when other signals suggest the role is not a fit.

Expectations vs. reality

As JobLeads’ Managing Director Jan Hendrik von Ahlen explains, the problem is not that Canadian women set low expectations. Rather, many women’s higher expectations do not translate into applications for higher-paid roles. That mismatch — between what women expect they can earn and the roles they actually pursue — points to different barriers that require targeted solutions.

Employers can take practical steps to help close this gap:

• Salary transparency: Posting clear salary ranges in job listings helps candidates identify roles that match their expectations and reduces self-filtering below their potential worth.
• Salary negotiation signals: When a position allows negotiation, explicitly stating that can encourage qualified candidates who expect higher pay to apply.
• Quality part-time and flexible roles: Since many women require flexible schedules for caregiving, offering senior-level part-time or flexible positions can make higher-paying roles accessible without forcing a choice between pay and caregiving responsibilities.
• Monitor hybrid pay equity: JobLeads found similar uptake of hybrid work by gender, yet men earned more in hybrid roles. Employers should track and address pay differences tied to work arrangements.

Overall, the data suggest the wage gap is not simply about ambition or a lack of high expectations among women. Instead, it reflects how salary opacity, job design and caregiving constraints filter which opportunities women apply for. Many high expectations never become formal applications when job postings don’t include clear pay or when roles don’t fit real-life needs. Naming and addressing these practical barriers — through transparency, flexible senior roles and active pay monitoring — can help more women translate expectations into higher-paid employment.