Employment Inequality In Canada

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Employment Insecurity and Inequality: A Glimpse at the Canadian Landscape
The rise of employment inequality and insecurity in Canada has prompted a current debate on the causes and consequences of higher injustices and its effects on labour market growth. Employment insecurity is defined as an employee’s feeling of overall concern that his or her job is at risk or that an employee is likely to face involuntary job loss in the near future (Désirée Schumacher, Bert Schreurs, Hetty Van Emmerik, 2015). Insecurity differs from inequality as the latter manifests itself as a social or economic disparity, which occurs because of unequal opportunity or treatment, especially amongst disadvantaged social groups (Krahn, Lowe, & Hughes, 2010). This paper …show more content…
Non-standard job arrangements suffer from insecurity due to a lack of protection by unions, non-existent insurance and pension plans and generally lower income (Krahn et al., 2010). The frequency of non-standard job arrangements relates to labour market conditions and can occur because of cost cutting measures by employers. Conversely, work inequality occurs when workers with equal labor productivity, education, ability, experience and training, are treated unequal (Law Commission of Canada, 2004). The result of unequal treatment in differences in opportunities for promotions and training; however, workplace inequality commonly refers to the income difference which largely affects disadvantaged groups (Krahn et al., 2010). The major factors that influence workplace inequality and insecurity are vastly different. Individual factors such as gender, age, sex, skin colour, religion and ethnic background, influenced work inequality. Job specific factors such as job satisfaction, working conditions and the nature of the work itself influence work …show more content…
Historical mistreatment of Chinese men in the 1880s saw their recruitment to work on railway construction for unfair compensation and unsafe work conditions (Krahn et al., 2010), resulting in inequality. All else equal, it was reported in 2007 that women received compensation between 73 - 88% compared to men (Statistics Canada, 2009), demonstrating that a gender wage gap has been created by employers. The richest income group (top quintile) has the largest share of Canada's economic pie with 39.1% of the total national income and is the only group to increase its share of the national income from 36.5% in 1990 to 39.1% in 2010 (Statistics Canada, 2013). Over a 25 year period from 1980 to 2005, wages of workers at the top of the income distribution have increased relative to those in the middle, wages at the middle increased relative to those at the bottom, and wages at the bottom have declined (Fortin, Green, Lemieux, & Milligan, 2012). The number of workers at the bottom have increased, resulting in growing inequality and insecurity. Institutional forces such as declining unionization rates and government policies that favour the wealthy have increase income
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