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This article provides information on the labour market participation of Canadians 25 to 64 years of age with a physical or mental disability related to seeing, hearing, mobility, flexibility, dexterity, pain, learning, development, psychological/mental disorders or memory.

There are 136,600 artists in Canada who spent more time at their art than at any other occupation in May of 2011 (which is when the National Household Survey data were collected). The number of artists represents 0.78% of the overall Canadian labour force. One in every 129 Canadian workers is an artist. The number of artists (136,600) is slightly higher than the labour force in automotive manufacturing (133,000) and slightly lower than the labour force in the utilities sector (149,900) and telecommunications (158,300). --Executive Summary

The knowledge synthesis presented in this report is based on an analysis of publicly accessible research on northern Aboriginal youth employment. We investigated the possible sources of the apparent mismatch between employment opportunities in northern Aboriginal communities and the hopes and needs of the people who make up the northern Aboriginal youth labour force. Our report outlines what is known about the sources of the mismatch, and the measures currently being taken to address it. We comment on the quality of the available evidence. Where possible, we have supplied missing information from primary sources. Finally, we offer recommendations for further research. --Executive Summary

Critique of the federal government's decision in December 2012 to curtail migrant farm workers' access to special benefits (parental, maternal, compassionate care) under the Employment Insurance plan, despite the fact that they contribute to it.

This report documents how the growth of unions from the First World War to the mid 1970’s helped create a shared prosperity or “middle class” in Canada, which has been steadily shrinking with the rise of corporate power and the erosion of unions since the late 1970’s. It provides compelling empirical validation of the crucial role unions played in redistributing income from capital to labour (profits to wages) and from the upper to the lower parts of the income hierarchy. The report examines ways union renewal can play a crucial role in restoring middle class security and mass prosperity in Canada. The Rand Formula is a formula dating back to 1946 when a decision was made during an arbitration hearing by Justice Ivan Rand that union dues would be paid by all employees benefitting from the collective agreement, not just signed union members. This means the employer deducts the dues from all employee paychecks and then forwards those funds to the union. The Rand Formula prevents employees from benefitting from the work of the union, while not paying union dues.

"[C]onducts a wide empirical study of Canadian employment data in search of any evidence that higher minimum wages reduce employment or increase unemployment. The authors examine the relationship between minimum wages and employment in all ten Canadian provinces betwenn 1983 and 2012, finding no consistent evidence that minimum wage levels affect emoployment in either direction. Instead, their research concludes that employments levels are overwhelmingly determined by larger macroeconomic factors." --CCPA Monitor, Nov. 2014

This report builds on the framework and analysis of Made in Canada. As a next step in the research, it focuses on recruitment because that is the stage where the power imbalance between workers and recruiters/employers is greatest, and yet it is the stage with the least effective legal oversight. This research aims to move beyond the now well-worn phrases of “unscrupulous recruiters” and “exorbitant fees” to build a more nuanced understanding of how low-wage migrant workers experience transnational recruitment. It examines the choices workers make (and are forced to make) in seeking work abroad; how recruiters exercise leverage over migrant workers, their families, and communities; why recruitment fees are oppressive; and how a recruitment relationship can undermine workers’ security and their legal rights long after they arrive in Canada. --From introduction.

For many years, Canadian governments have tried to legislate higher earnings for low-wage workers. With origins at the municipal level, living wage laws are a relatively new policy that gained prominence in American cities starting in the mid-1990s. Currently more than 140 American municipalities have a living wage law. In 2011, the City of New Westminster in British Columbia became the first and only Canadian city to adopt a living wage ordinance. This report reviews the scholarly research on living wage laws from the United States and concludes that the US experience should make us cautious about adopting this policy more widely in Canada. -- Publisher's description

Employs an index of "labour market flexibility" to assess labour relations' law in Canadian and U.S. jurisdictions.

It is well known that unions and collective bargaining allows workers to achieve progress in areas such as compensation, working conditions, and other "economic issues". This report examines how unions have also had a positive influence in their communities, in society at large and on the quality of our democracy. The Rand Formula is a formula dating back to 1946 when a decision was made during an arbitration hearing by Justice Ivan Rand that union dues would be paid by all employees benefitting from the collective agreement, not just signed union members. This means the employer deducts the dues from all employee paychecks and then forwards those funds to the union. The Rand Formula prevents employees from benefitting from the work of the union, while not paying union dues.

Young people today in Canada face a reality vastly different from the one 20 or 30 years ago, economically and socially. This paper will examine how young workers are experiencing various changing realities such as: student debt, precarious employment (unemployment, under-employment, and unwaged work), reduced job security (including unionization), rising inequality, changing wealth/debt dynamics and, less quantifiably, diminished social cohesion and community connection as a result of growing insecurity. While this paper will examine the issue from a national perspective, it will also identify how some of these trends are being played out — or differ — in Newfoundland and Labrador.

Canadian labour law has ensured that all workers who benefit from collective agreements contribute to the cost of maintaining those agreements through union dues. Today the security of unions is under attack within Ontario, and elsewhere in Canada. This paper looks at how Conservative proposals, imported from the US, would threaten union security in Ontario by removing the Rand Formula requirement of mandatory dues payment, and allowing workers to opt out of the bargaining unit. The Rand Formula is a formula dating back to 1946 when a decision was made during an arbitration hearing by Justice Ivan Rand that union dues would be paid by all employees benefitting from the collective agreement, not just signed union members. This means the employer deducts the dues from all employee paychecks and then forwards those funds to the union. The Rand Formula prevents employees from benefitting from the work of the union, while not paying union dues.