This is a sample op-ed. Feel free to edit it for your own purposes.
Personal stories are powerful. Think about how the facts connect to
the circumstances in your university, college, city, or town.

[INSERT DATE] marks Equal Pay Day. It is the day when women and men around the province recognize the pay gap between working women and men, and call for planning and action to redress such pay inequity. 

Ontario’s gender pay gap according to the most recent Statistics Canada data (2011) is 31.5% based on all male and female average annual earnings (including part-time workers). If you measure the gap using full-time, full-year average annual earnings the gap is still 26%. Such gaps are amongst the highest in the world.

The rights of women to equal pay for work of equal value and equal treatment in pay and employment opportunities are internationally recognized human rights standards which Canada has ratified and bind Ontario.

Women represent nearly half of Ontario's paid labour force. Families and communities rely on women's pay. The purpose of Equal Pay Day, as US President Obama declared in his proclamation, is to "recognize the full value of women's skills and their significant contribution to the labour force, acknowledge the injustice of wage discrimination and join efforts to achieve equal pay."

Here are some ways to close the pay gap: Employers, as required by the Pay Equity Act and the Human Rights Code, must examine and correct their compensation systems which pay women's work less than comparable men's work. Identified pay gaps need to be closed and practices put in place to make sure they don't reopen.

We need to reinstate employment equity laws and practices. Employers need to put in place non-discriminatory hiring, employment and retention practices for women and particularly women of colour, Aboriginal women, and women with disabilities who experience greater pay gaps and disadvantage. Right now we are not utilizing 100% of our talent.

We need to support our unions. Union representation is one of the quickest ways to close the pay gap in the workplace.

We still do not have enough affordable and accessible child care. As Supreme Court of Canada Justice Rosalie Abella said in 1984, "Child care is the ramp that provides equal access to the workforce for mothers."

Many sectors of the economy are female dominated, particularly those providing public services like health care, community and home care services, childcare and long-term care. Women in these jobs also face pay discrimination because their sector is underpaid compared to male-dominated sectors such as the police and firefighters. Government funding of these sectors must properly value women workers providing these crucial public services.

Pay equity is a growing national movement. Women and men around the country recognize the importance of measures to close the pay gap. At the rate we are going, the gender pay gap will take more than half a century to close. We cannot wait that long!

[Your name and title, organization name, or occupation]