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This paper proposes novel natural language methods to measure worker rights from collective bargaining agreements (CBAs) for use in empirical economic analysis. Applying unsupervised text-as-data algorithms to a new collection of 30,000 CBAs from Canada in the period 1986-2015, we parse legal obligations (e.g., “the employer shall provide...”) and legal rights (e.g., “workers shall receive...”) from the contract text. We validate that contract clauses provide worker rights, which include both amenities and control over the work environment. Companies that provide more worker rights score highly on a survey indicating pro-worker management practices. Using time-varying province-level variation in labor income tax rates, we find that higher taxes increase the share of worker-rights clauses while reducing pre-tax wages in unionized firms, consistent with a substitution effect away from taxed compensation (wages) toward untaxed amenities (worker rights). Further, an exogenous increase in the value of outside options (from a leave-one-out instrument for labor demand) increases the share of worker rights clauses in CBAs. Combining the regression estimates, we infer that a one-standard-deviation increase in worker rights is valued at about 5.7% of wages.

Wage theft is the number one issue workers bring to the Workers’ Action Centre. For people in low-wage and precarious work, being offered subminimum wages, not getting all their wages, or paid late, are common occurences. While the problems giving rise to wage theft are not new, the crisis has become dire due to a combination of factors, including chronic under-enforcement of our labour laws, our current cost of living crisis, and the weakening of Canada’s social safety net. In the last 10 years, almost $200 million dollars has been assessed as owing to workers in Ontario through the Employment Standards Act (ESA) complaint process. ...In 2024 we surveyed 513 workers in Toronto about the problems they experience at work. The survey was done in English, Spanish, Tamil, Bengali, Somali, and Chinese (Mandarin). We targeted our surveymethodology to reach recent immigrants, racialized workers, non-status and low-wage workers who are often missed in standard labour force surveys. Our goal was to document the extent of employment standards’ violations that people in precarious work face and the impact of violations on these workers. The result of that survey paints a stark picture of what workers are up against in Ontario. --From Executive summary

In this first part of our two-part report on Canadian modern slavery law, we introduce Canada’s Fighting Against Forced Labour and Child Labour in Supply Chains Act and situate it in its international legal and doctrinal context.

We draw upon the commentaries introduced in the first part of this two-part report to analyze current Canadian modern slavery law and then continue by evaluating the potential legislative and jurisprudential avenues through which Canadian law on this subject could further develop.ention.

Despite widespread concerns that gig work is becoming a dominant part of our economy, most studies find it is not an important part of Canada’s labour market and its growth is embraced by most workers. While there is no consensus on its precise definition, most research shows gig work involves less than 10 percent of the labour force. Moreover, most definitions of the gig economy—as with related concepts such as nonstandard and precarious work—include well-off people, such as self-employed professionals as well as people who prefer flexible work, such as truckers, dockworkers, and students and older people looking to supplement their incomes. Many participants in the gig economy are attracted by its flexibility and freedom, rather than being forced into such jobs by a weak labour market. This contradicts the narrative that these jobs are inherently inferior. Most data point to a much different assessment of the state of Canada’s labour market. Job tenure has risen steadily, quit rates remain near historic lows, and surveys show most Canadians are content with their working conditions. This implies little need for governments to legislate and regulate the labour market to help vulnerable workers, and such initiatives may limit the opportunities for people to earn extra income and stay active in the labour force. The disconnect between the relatively benign reality of Canada’s labour market and advocates who insist work is becoming more precarious reflects fundamental problems in the agenda for labour economics, with much of this narrative reflecting Europe’s experience with regulations that end up marginalizing youths and immigrants trying to find their footing in a sclerotic economy. --Executive Summary

Higher unionization rates don't just benefit workers, evidence suggests they also offer broad social benefits like a cleaner environment and better health. [Includes tables.] --Website description

Tens of thousands of migrant workers travel every year to Canada in the hope of providing a better life for their families. They are promised labour opportunities and working conditions that very often they cannot enjoy in their countries of origin. Yet, many find a different reality upon arrival: they are made to work long hours without rest, are underpaid, suffer physical and psychological abuse, and are often subjected to stereotypes and assumptions about their skills, behaviours or identities. Their visas are tied to one employer, making it difficult for them to leave their job and change employers, or report abuses and access effective remedies. This report investigates the human rights impact of Canada’s Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP), a temporary migration scheme that allows employers to hire migrant workers, primarily in low-pay occupations. Amnesty International’s research finds that Canada’s migration policy has designed, regulated and implemented the TFWP in such a way as to inherently increase racialized workers’ risk of labour exploitation and other abuses, creating discriminatory outcomes and violating its international human rights obligations.

The pandemic clearly illustrated the precarity that many racialized workers experience, disproportionately represented on the front lines, in jobs lacking the job protections, benefits or paid sick days. The recovery has proven to be equally challenging. One of the most notable changes in Canada’s labour market was the sharp reduction in low-waged service sector employment and the simultaneous increase in several higher-paying industries such as professional services and finance. The change in the industrial structure of employment in the context of a very tight labour market helped to narrow the employment gap between racialized and white workers between 2019 and 2022. At the same time, other racialized workers were caught on the wrong side of the recession. This report provides a detailed examination of the fallout of the pandemic and its recovery focusing in on the experiences of racialized workers in the key age group 25 to 54 years, drawing on custom data from Statistics Canada on employment, wages and industrial sector. --Introduction