Precarious Employment
and Labour Market
Inequalities
March 4
Precarious employment
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Corporate restructuring and public sector
restructuring in the neoliberal era have
transformed the labour market in
Canada.
Part-time work, temporary work, contract
labour have become more prevalent.
‘Non-standard’ forms of employment
have increasingly become the standard.
Precarious employment
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This has been referred to as the “feminization
of labour” or the “feminization of employment
relations”.
“a growing proportion of work arrangements
carry wages, benefits, terms and conditions of
employment resembling those conventionally
identified with women and other marginalized
workers” (Fudge and Vosko, 2001: 272).
Flexible forms of labour offer benefits for
employers (in the private or public sector) but
what is the impact on workers?
Women and Paid Labour
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Women were drawn into the paid labour market
during WWII. During the war, labour force
participation among women peaked at 33%.
After the war, women were encouraged to leave the
labour market and return to the home. Labour force
participation among women dropped to 25%.
After a relatively brief decline in their labour force
participation, women increasingly returned to paid
employment over the postwar period. Not until 1967
did female participation surpass the wartime peak.
Women and Paid Labour
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Today, their labour market participation rate has
become increasingly similar to that of men.
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In 2006, 73.5% of all women aged 15-64 and
were part of the paid work force, up from just
over half of such women in the mid-70s.
The participation rate for men, aged 15-64 is
82.2%.
The participation rate for women in Canada
is among the highest in the OECD. The
OECD average is just 60.8%.
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Women and
Dual Earner Families
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“As the real wages of men have
stagnated and, for many, declined ever
since the mid-1970s, women have
entered the labour force to maintain
and increase real family incomes.”
“The dual earner family is now very
much the Canadian norm.”
Paid Labour and Motherhood
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“There has been particularly sharp growth in the
employment rate of women with children in the past two
decades.”
“In 2004, 73% of all women with children under age 16
living at home were part of the employed workforce, up
from 39% in 1976.”
“by 2004, 65% of all women with children under age 3
were employed, more than double the figure in 1976
when just 28% were employed.
“Similarly, 70% of women whose youngest child was aged
3 to 5 worked for pay or profit in 2004, up from 37% in
1976.” – Statistics Canada.
Women and Paid Labour
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Women are much more likely than men to work parttime – 26% of employed females versus 11% of
employed males (as of 2006).
The majority of employed women continue to work in
occupations in which women have traditionally been
concentrated.
In 2004, 67% of all employed women were working
in teaching, nursing and related health occupations,
clerical or other administrative positions, and sales
and service occupations.
http://www12.statcan.ca/english/census06/analysis/labour/tables/table3.htm
The Income Gap
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There continues to be a significant income gap between men
and women.
In 2005, the average annual pre-tax income of women aged 16
was just 62% the figure for men.
In 2005, women working full-time, full-year had average
earnings of $39,200, or 70.5% what men employed full-time,
full-year made that year.
“The gender wage gap for full-time/full-year workers closed
steadily through the 1980s until the mid-1990s”
“The gender pay gap in Canada is now the fifth biggest among
22 OECD countries, and somewhat greater than in the United
States.” - CLC
Women and Education
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Women have made significant advances within the education
system but we can still see the impact of gender roles.
In the 2001/02 academic year, 57% of all full-time university
students were female, up from 52% in 1992/93 and 37% in
1972/73.
Women made up 58% of all students in Bachelor’s and first
professional degree programs, compared 51% of those in
Master’s programs and 46% of those working toward their
doctorate.
Women made up only 30% of all university students in
mathematics and physical sciences, and just 24% of those in
engineering and applied sciences. – Statistics Canada
http://www.caut.ca/uploads/ivorytowers2006.pdf
Women and Education
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Women have made significant advances
within the education system but we can still
see the impact of gender roles.
“Half of women aged 25 to 44 now have a
post secondary qualification, compared to
40% of men”
Yet, comparing university-educated men and
women, women earned just 68% as much as
men in 2005.
Female Scientists and
Engineers
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“For every woman who held a science or
engineering (S&E) doctorate in Canada in
2001, there were four men.”
“For each age group, earnings of female
science and engineering PhDs were
significantly lower than those of their male
counterparts.”
“For every dollar earned by a male doctorate
holder, female doctorates earned 77 cents.”
http://www.statcan.ca/english/research/11-621-MIE/11-621-MIE2007063.htm
Women’s Unpaid Labour
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Women remain responsible for the vast
majority of unpaid labour in the home,
including child care.
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A national child care program has been a
longstanding demand of the women’s
movement.
Early Childhood Education and Care
Fall 2006 Cuts to Women’s Programs
by the Federal Government
Status of Women Canada, cutting 40% of this govt
agency’s administrative budget, altering its mandate
and changing its rules so that women's groups
cannot use federal funding to do advocacy or
lobbying. In March 2007, the government reinvested
at least some of the cut funds back into the Women’s
Program.
The Court Challenges Program, which provided
financial assistance for groups (including the
Women’s Legal Education and Action Fund) waging
court cases that advanced language and equality
rights, was eliminated.
Grace-Edward Galabuzi. 2006.
Canada's Economic Apartheid:
The Social Exclusion of Racialized
Groups in the New Century. Toronto:
Canadian Scholars’ Press.
Racialized Workers and the
Division of Labour
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“From early European attempts to take control
of the land, resources, and trade from the First
Nations, which involved restricting their
economic participation, to the selective
importation of African-American, Asian and
Caribbean labour for specific sectoral and
occupational deployment, race has
substantially determined access to economic
opportunity in Canada” (Galabuzi, 2004: 177).
Racialized Workers and the
Division of Labour
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“In the 1960s, the demands of an expanding
economy and diminishing migration from
Europe led to the removal of legal restrictions
against non-European immigration” (Galabuzi,
2004: 176).
Despite the increasing diversity of the labour
force in Canada, racialized workers face
structural barriers within the labour market.
Racialized Workers and the
Division of Labour
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“Racialized groups experience
disproportionate access to sectors and
occupations where non-standard forms
of work are dominant” (Galabuzi, 2004:
183).
“Racialized groups predominate in lowincome sectors…as well as in low-status
occupations” (Galabuzi, 2004: 183).
Racialized Workers and the
Division of Labour
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“For many racialized group members,
educational attainment has not
translated into comparable
compensation, labour market access, or
workplace mobility” (Galabuzi, 2004:
185).
“Racial segmentation is clearest in
occupational and sectoral segmentation”
(Galabuzi, 2004: 193).
Temporary Migrant Workers
Foreign workers continue to be an important source of
labour for the Canadian economy. Not all of these
foreign workers that contribute to the economy and
pay their taxes receive full citizenship rights.
 Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program (SAWP)
 Live-in Caregiver Program (LCP)
 Non-Immigrant Employment Authorization Program
(NIEAP)
http://www.thestar.com/topic/Nannies
http://www.thestar.com/topic/TempWorkers
El Contrato (The Contract)
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Documentary, 52 min long, available
from the York U library.
It sheds light on the Seasonal
Agricultural Worker Program (SAWP),
in particular, Mexican migrant
agricultural workers that work in southwestern Ontario.