This post is about a month late.

I had planned on writing this April 2nd, when I first stumbled on the Press Release.

I’m not going to say much about it. It really needs no explanation, but I thought it was worth noting because its an example of the Labour Congress’ blatant misuse of Press to downplay a very serious issue.

Well… they probably hadn’t intended to make light of the issue, but this doesn’t help the public’s view of their commitment to solving the problem.

I know, it was April Fool’s day. This was intended to be light-hearted and in the moment of the festivities (are there April Fool’s Day festivities?).

Here is their first release of the day:

Our Kind of Tax Cut
Labour welcomes government action on women’s wages

OTTAWA – The Canadian Labour Congress today welcomed news that the federal government will finally move to close the persistent and growing wage gap that sees Canada’s working women paid an average of 70½ cents for each dollar earned by men.

“Lower taxes for lower wages: higher taxes for higher wages. It’s plain old common sense that works for women. We work just as long and just as hard to support our families as men do in this country. It’s about time something was done to address the fact that we get paid less for our work,” says Barbara Byers, Executive Vice- President of the Canadian Labour Congress.

Last month, the CLC released a report that showed just how deep Canada’s pay inequity problem has become. The report, “Women in the Workforce: Still a Long Way from Equality” revealed that Canadian women who work at full-time jobs throughout the entire year earn just 70½ cents for every dollar earned by men who do similar work. Worse, the report showed that this wage gap was growing and growing fastest among women with post-secondary education.

“As women file their income tax returns, they see they are paying taxes on wages where they’ve done a dollars’ worth of work for thirty cents less. It’s not fair and, finally, the government has decided to do something about it,” says Barbara Byers, Executive Vice-President of the Canadian Labour Congress.

According to Byers, the Minister for Women will announce plans to have women pay, on average, 70% of the income taxes on their wages that men pay. Because nearly 40% of women who file income tax returns already don’t earn enough to pay federal tax (according to Revenue Canada statistics from 2005), the impact on the federal treasury is something the government can manage.

While greater access to affordable child care, higher minimum wages, and meaningful pay equity laws would do more to close the wage gap between Canadian women and men, Byers says this is an April 1st to remember. Web site: www.canadianlabour.ca

My point is, they could have picked a different issue, or dealt with it in a different way. They actually released this to an international PR website. So it was released as genuine news about labour equity and tax cuts.

I’m sure it’s not the first time a company has done this, but it certainly should be the last time a governing body does this.

They issued this retraction, which was released later in the day:

April Fools! - Cutting taxes really doesn’t help

April 1, 2008

OTTAWA – Earlier today, we issued a release about plans to have women pay just 70% of the income tax on their wages that men pay as a measure to compensate for the fact that women earn, on average, about 70 cents for every dollar earned by men who do similar work. Of course, it was an April Fools’ joke.

While it’s true that something needs to be done to address this problem, there are better answers. To learn about them, visit onceandforall.ca or look for the Equality! Once and For All! campaign on our web site, canadianlabour.ca.

The Canadian Labour Congress, the national voice of the labour movement, represents 3.2 million Canadian workers. The CLC brings together Canada’s national and international unions along with the provincial and territorial federations of labour and 136 district labour councils. Web site: www.canadianlabour.ca

I agree that tax cuts are the appropriate way to solve the problem, and the likelihood of the Government taking a stand in this way is pretty far-fetched.

Maybe they were attempting to gain more support by creating awareness of the situation and making people angry.

I’m not averse to humor.

I just don’t support their idea of a joke.

Pamela Weir is a Marketing Copywriter. If you are looking for a sales writer with experience creating website content, press releases, squeeze pages, and sales pages, please visit her Copywriting Services page for more information.