Your search

Proposals to increase the minimum wage have re-emerged in provinces across the country. For instance, the Alberta government recently pledged to hike the provincial minimum wage from $10.20 to $15 per hour by 2018, already taking the first step with a $1 hike effective October 1, 2015. There has been a similar movement to raise the minimum wage to $15 in various jurisdic- tions in the United States. Popular support for the minimum wage largely derives from the belief that it is a useful tool for boosting the wages of poor workers. However, the evidence paints a much different picture. For starters, the minimum wage does not effectively target workers in low-income households. In fact, 87.5% of Canadians earning minimum wage in 2012 lived in households above the Low Income Cut-Off (LICO), a widely used measure of relative poverty. Moreover, the vast majority of workers (83.4%) from households falling below the LICO threshold earned more than the minimum wage. These counterintuitive results follow from the demographic compos- ition of minimum wage earners. In 2014, 58.4% of those earning minimum wage were youths aged 15 to 24. Furthermore, 56.8% of all minimum wage earners were living with family, while 19.9% were married to a spouse who was also employed. Taken together, the data undercut the popular image of minimum wage earners being single breadwinners supporting a family. In fact, only 2.2% of those earning minimum wage were unmarried heads of household with at least one minor child. The tenuous link between minimum wage earners and poor house- holds makes the minimum wage a very crude method for targeting assistance to those who need it. At the same time, hiking the minimum wage can do considerable harm, most notably by decreasing employment opportunities among low-skilled workers—the very group the policy is designed to help. By making labour artificially more expensive, increasing the minimum wage may significantly reduce employment among teenagers and other groups of low-skilled workers. Besides reducing employment outright, hiking the min- imum wage could lead to a reduction in hours and other benefits (such as on-the-job training) for those workers who keep their jobs.

This Economic Insights article documents differences in labour market participation observed between immigrant wives and Canadian-born wives over the 2006-to-2014 period. It also assesses the degree to which the lower participation of immigrant wives, as compared with their Canadian-born counterparts, can be accounted for by differences in socioeconomic characteristics, such as family size, weekly wages of husbands, and labour force participation in the source country. The study uses the Labour Force Survey and World Bank indicators on source-country characteristics to examine these issues. Attention is restricted to Canadian-born women and landed immigrant women aged 25 to 54 who are married (or living in common-law relationships) with husbands aged 25 to 54 who are employed as paid workers. For simplicity, the terms ‘husbands’ and ‘wives’ are used to refer to men and women who are married or in common-law relationships.

The so-called “gig-economy” has been growing exponentially in numbers and importance in recent years but its impact on labour rights has been largely overlooked. Forms of work in the “gig-economy” include “crowdwork”, and “work-on-demand via apps”, under which the demand and supply of working activities is matched online or via mobile apps. These forms of work can provide a good match of job opportunities and allow flexible working schedules. However, they can also pave the way to a severe commodification of work. This paper discusses the implications of this commodification and advocates the full recognition of activities in the gig-economy as “work”. It shows how the gig-economy is not a separate silo of the economy and that is part of broader phenomena such as casualization and informalisation of work and the spread of non-standard forms of employment. It then analyses the risks associated to these activities with regard to Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work, as they are defined by the International Labour Organisation (ILO), and addresses the issue of misclassification of the employment status of workers in the gig economy. Current relevant trends are thus examined, such as the emergence of forms of self-organisation of workers. Finally, some policy proposals are critically analysed, such as the possibility of creating an intermediate category of worker between “employee” and “independent contractor” to classify work in the gig-economy, and other tentative proposals are put forward such extension of fundamental labour rights to all workers irrespective of employment status, and recognition of the role of social partners in this respect, whilst avoiding temptations of hastened deregulation.

For the approximately 600,000 migrants currently working in Canada, changes made to the Temporary Foreign Worker Program in 2014 have left them more vulnerable to exploitation and have further narrowed their access to permanent residence. These are the findings of Canada’s Choice: Decent Work or Entrenched Exploitation for Canada’s Migrant Workers?, the latest report from human rights lawyer and Metcalf Fellow Fay Faraday, that builds upon her two previous Metcalf papers on the precarious conditions created and perpetuated by Canada’s controversial Temporary Foreign Worker Program. “Canada has lost its innocence on temporary labour migration,” says Faraday. “The 2014 reforms do nothing to alleviate – and in many cases exacerbate – insecurity for migrant workers. And exploitation predictably follows.” The report details the continued exploitation faced by migrant workers — including unscrupulous recruitment practices, employment mobility restrictions, and a lack of protection from rights abuses— and provides clear policy recommendations to strengthen protections and build employment security for Canada’s migrant workers. Canada’s Choice is also part of a submission to the Parliamentary Committee that is currently studying the Temporary Foreign Worker Program. With Canada’s labour migration policy at a crossroads, we hope that this timely report will contribute to informing the public discourse and lead to comprehensive reforms that enforce the rights of some of our nation’s most vulnerable workers. --Publisher's description

Within the past decade, the unprecedented growth in non-tenure/tenure track faculty has led to speculation as to the learning environment and learning outcomes for students. Both national media and researchers have raised concerns about the growth in short-term contract faculty, yet there is little evidentiary data to support policy development. Our study of sessional faculty in Ontario’s publicly funded universities provides much needed data and insight into the current pressures, challenges, and adaptations of the rapidly rising number of university instructors who work on short-term contracts, also known as sessional faculty. --From Executive Summary

In this discussion paper, we make the case for a renewed national dialogue on workplace democracy. Though the term may sound better suited to an academic/policy conference from the 1970s, in plain terms workplace democracy actually speaks to an ever-present need: i.e., advancing the fundamental rights of employees to associate freely and to have some say over decisions that affect their lives in the workplace. By expanding employee voice, as a country, we can also generate positive spillovers that enhance job satisfaction, raise productivity and increase civic participation. These benefits improve the lives of workers, increase the bottom lines for firms and enrich society as a whole. These are also ideas, it should be noted, that lie at the heart of industrial relations scholarship going back more than a century and which we draw from in this discussion paper. --Executive Summary

In this report, we begin by setting the context of living and working in Greater Victoria, examining low wages, high cost of living, and employment trends, particularly in relation to work in the retail, food service, and hospitality industries. We characterize retail, food service, and hospitality work as “precarious work,” providing workers with very little in the way of wages, benefits, job security, stability, protection, or basic respect and dignity. Existing employment standards are not adequate to protect workers in retail, food service, and hospitality. The key contribution of this report is its exploration of key areas of concern – low-wages, lack of benefits, unstable scheduling practices, unfair job expectations, disregard for workersʼ health and safety, poor treatment, workplace justice – through the workersʼ own experiences and voices. We would like to thank these workers for sharing their experiences with us. By bringing these various and similar experiences together, we hope this report will help provide a grounding to fight for workplace justice.

This study examines Metro Vancouver working poverty trends by neighbourhood pre- and post- the 2008 recession. We are often told that the solution to poverty is for the poor to “get a job” or for various sectors to create more jobs. But this study finds that a job is not a guaranteed path out of poverty. Over 100,000 working-age people in Metro Vancouver were working but stuck below the poverty line in 2012, not counting students and young adults living at home with their parents. Contrary to stereotypes about poverty being concentrated mainly in Vancouver and Surrey, this study finds the growing ranks of the working poor are spread out across the Metro Vancouver region. The study explores the economic and public policy contributing to working poverty and develops recommendations for change. The study is a co-publication of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives – BC Office, the United Way of the Lower Mainland, and the BC Poverty Reduction Coalition.

This report is a study of occupational health and safety conditions at Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP) offices in the wake of two sets of changes: The reorganization of work associated with the Modernized Service Delivery Model (MSDM) introduced in 2010 (commonly referred to as Modernization), and the 2014 implementation of the Social Assistance Management System, a new computer system knowns as SAMS. As I crossed Ontario interviewing ODSP workers and read dozens of pages of comments workers added to their online survey, I heard and read numerous stories of frustration and disappointment with the changes, frustrations that were negatively affecting the health of workers. However, I also heard how many ODSP workers had been looking forward to these changes.

The effects of neoliberal capitalism have had a significant impact on the structure of the Canadian labour market and economy, but also on the employment opportunities for young workers in the early 21st century. And despite being the most educated generation ever, the millennials are faced with fewer full-time, secure jobs. Many have opted to embrace self-employment, sometimes not by choice but by necessity. This qualitative study embraced similar themes from the McMaster University/United Way of Toronto/PEPSO study, “The Precarity Penalty,” to determine how self employment affects their personal, work, social and community lives. One-on-one interviews were conducted with 10 Hamilton millennials (born 1981-1997), who were recruited through the Hamilton Chamber of Commerce’s affiliated organizations, Hamilton HIVE and Young Entrepreneurs and Professionals Hamilton. A total of 28 questions explored five topical areas: 1) their employment relationship; 2) how their employment relationship affected their life outside of work – i.e., family life, friends, community involvement; 3) physical and mental health; 4) their outlook on the future in terms of employment-related opportunities and potential barriers; and 5) their overall view on work and the current generation of workers. This research provided a glimpseinto the challenges that young, well-educated, self-employed millennials face, and their views on work and the labour market today. and their views on work and the labour market today. --From Executive Summary

This study, co-published by CCPA and Oxfam Canada, looks at how women in Canada and around the world are affected by rising inequality, including the burden of unpaid work, the undervaluing of work in

This study investigates the TPP's chapter on "temporary entry for business persons" to understand its potential consequences for Canadian immigration policy and the Canadian labour market. It examines the general provisions that apply to all TPP countries as well as Canada's specific commitments for different categories of workers under the TPP. The study finds that the TPP will give more leeway to employers to hire migrant workers and transfer employees across borders—even in industries and regions where unemployment is high and domestic workers are available—without offering mobility rights to workers themselves. Although the short-term impact on the Canadian labour market will likely be small, the potential long-term impact of the TPP's temporary entry provisions is significant. Like other aspects of the TPP, these provisions override Canada's existing immigration policy and cannot be changed by a future government.

Chronicles the United Steelworkers' fight to prevent workplace deaths and injuries from the 1992 Westray mine disaster through 2016. Discusses workplace deaths, the failure of employers to keep workers safe, and the ongoing need for stronger enforcement of the Westray Law. Written by former Tyee journalist Tom Sanborn.