A new “expectation-to-reality” gap may help explain Canada’s gender pay disparity

Researchers cite numerous factors for the persistent gender pay gap, both systemic and situational. Meanwhile, pay gap denialists suggest disparities exist because of individual decision-making and biological determinism. In the meantime, Statistics Canada reports that women aged 15 and older earned 88 cents for every dollar earned by men in 2025, up from 82 cents in 1997 Statistics Canada. This may be progress, but it’s progress measured in fractions of a cent over decades.

A clue in job search data

In the last quarter of 2025, online job search platform, JobLeads, analyzed data from more than 36,000 Canadian users of their site. What they discovered about the difference between men’s and women’s job hunts may provide context to the gender pay gap discussion. Here are some of their key findings.

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

The average upper salary expectation for men was $121,488, while women asked for an average maximum of $162,492. This finding directly contradicts the idea that women are paid less because they fail to ask for high salaries when they negotiate (or renegotiate) a job. 

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

Fewer men applied for part-time work (23%) than women (33%). One obvious reason for this is that women are disproportionately responsible for child and elder care, which often makes part-time work a necessity. 

Women also applied to more roles with “soft skills” (such as communications, empathy, and teamwork) more than men—31% to 28%. There’s a direct link between socialization and employment here. So-called soft skills, which are sometimes classed as forms of emotional labour, tend to be valued and encouraged in women and girls. This could be why, according to data from LinkedIn, women have a higher share of soft skills than men. Unfortunately, soft skills are often devalued at work when compared to hard skills like software proficiency, machine operation, and other technical skills. 

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

JobLeads data showed that in the finance and legal industries, women applied to lower-paying roles than men (10% and 6.9% less, respectively, averaging out to more than $3,000 less).

Notably, for jobs in marketing and media, men and women made about the same salary. The same held for human resources jobs. One inference is that these industries rely heavily on soft skills, so women feel more comfortable asking for higher salaries. Another way to look at these numbers is that because they are associated with soft skills, these jobs command lower salaries for employees of any gender. 

Fewer women submitted applications to jobs they clicked on

More than three quarters of men (76%) submitted applications after clicking on a job. For women, the percentage was 64%. Twelve percent is a significant difference, one that JobLeads representatives suggest is influenced by the “expectation-to-reality collapse”, or the structural gap between what women believe they could earn and the roles they ultimately pursue.

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Expectations vs. reality

JobsLeads’ Managing Director Jan Hendrik von Ahlen puts it this way: “The barrier for Canadian women isn’t low expectations, it’s that high expectations don’t translate into high-salary applications—and that’s a different problem that requires a different set of solutions.”

There are four main ways employers can be proactive in closing this gap:

• Salary transparency: When job posters include clear salary information at the application stage, Canadian women with higher salary ceilings are able to see clearly which roles match them instead of self-filtering below their own expectations. 
• Salary negotiation: If there’s room to negotiate about salaries, it makes sense to advertise that. 
• Part-time role quality: Many Canadian women only have capacity for part-time paid work, but part-time work averages $16,000 less per year. Companies can mitigate the issue by offering high-quality flexible roles at senior levels.
• Hybrid pay equity: In the JobLeads data, women and men choose hybrid at almost identical rates (12.9% vs. 13.1%). Yet, men earn CAD $8,287 more in those roles. That gap needs to be named and monitored.

If these findings are accurate, it doesn’t really support the idea that women are holding themselves back because they don’t aim high enough. What it suggests instead is something more practical: a lot of high expectations never make it into actual job applications, especially when salaries aren’t clear or roles don’t fit around real-life constraints like caregiving.

So, the gap may not be about ambition at all; it may be about how many opportunities actually feel worth applying for in the first place.

About Keph Senett

Keph Senett writes about personal finance through a community-building lens. She seeks to make clear and actionable knowledge available to everyone.