Summary

Social inclusion and material well-being: The impact of labour market policies

Thursday March 27, 2003 - Plenary

Labour market policies for social inclusion
Andrew Jackson, Canadian Labour Congress

Jackson defined social inclusion in terms of four factors: individual development, participation in society, equality of “life chances,” and real equality of opportunity.

In the labour market, he said, “the goal is good jobs in good workplaces.” This involves two key dimensions: adequate income and opportunities for self-development. Precarious work is a growing concern and is defined as a high combined risk of unemployment and low pay.

The current policy approach has been to promote inclusion through work by using “sticks” such as EI and welfare reform. Policy should move toward making work pay by using “carrots” such as income supplementation. Many other advanced industrial countries have higher wage floors and a more compressed distribution of earnings (without raising the total wage bill). A federal minimum wage would be a step towards a national minimum wage and serve as a benchmark. There should also be some right to training for workers in precarious jobs.

Precarious employment in the Canadian labour market: Fostering a research agenda for social inclusion
Leah Vosko, York University

Vosko outlined a research project headed by the Alliance on Contingent Employment (ACE), which aims to foster new understandings of labour market insecurity, with a focus on precarious work.

The researchers used four mutually exclusive categories of employment (from full-time permanent to part-time temporary) and four dimensions (income, social wage, regulatory protection, and work arrangements) to map precarious employment. This mapping did not evolve in isolation; it was informed by a range of research methodologies. Vosko said a research agenda for social inclusion must be multi- and interdisciplinary: “Research fostering social inclusion needs to focus on the intersections or the spaces between the disciplines.”

Principles and methodological strategies that could help to foster this type of research include: inclusion; equity; and transcending the dichotomy between the researcher and the subject. Research agendas aiming to foster social inclusion should adopt strategies of boundary pushing; multi-and interdisciplinary research; and new forms of collaboration.

Social exclusion, new immigrants and racialized groups in Canada’s labour market(s)
Grace-Edward Galabuzi, Centre for Social Justice, Toronto

Galabuzi cautioned that the discourse around social exclusion has not yet been exhausted, noting a tension between the social exclusion framework and some of the programs and policies being discussed today. “Some of us aren’t there yet,” he noted, explaining the situation faced by new immigrants and racialized groups in Canada.

The racial dimensions of social exclusion include a racialized income gap, higher than average unemployment, and deepening levels of poverty. New immigrants and racialized groups experience labour market segregation, unequal access to employment, higher rates of unemployment and underemployment, employment discrimination, unequal income attainment, and barriers to access to professions and trades.

Many groups have embraced the concept of inclusion as a means to re-engage with the state on some of these issues. There is a tendency to focus on equal opportunity as opposed to equal outcomes, but substantive inclusion requires a focus on outcomes—precisely because structural problems cannot be solved through limited concepts of equality.

Discussion

A participant remarked that the national child benefit supplement is experienced as a stick (not a carrot) by people who lose it because it is tied to social assistance. The working income supplement was a carrot, because it was tied to work.

Another speaker commented that the creation of a floor wage is not viable in Canada. In Europe, there is a higher floor wage, but more unemployment; while in North America there is high employment but lower-paying jobs. Canada’s economy is based on small- and medium-sized businesses that cannot support a higher minimum wage. As an alternative to a wage floor, he suggested a low-income tax credit. Jackson argued that the European–North American construct is misleading, because it ignores countries that maintain high employment at good wages.

Regarding training, Jackson noted that EI-supported training would require everyone to contribute: the employer would have to cope with someone being on leave, and the worker would have to live on a lower level of income (EI) during training. Such a system would encourage employers to think about skill development for the future.

Vosko commented that it is not necessary to be confined to a model that is workplace-based. There are other models, and it’s possible to think more creatively, especially given the dynamics of the contemporary labour force.

Asked if her multidimensional research looked at the interaction between systems (EI, sick leave, maternity leave, etc.), Vosko said many workers fail to qualify for benefits like EI because they don’t meet the requirements of the new hours system. This creates more strain because people with no access to EI are compelled to accept more precarious forms of work.

Speaking of the need to disaggregate social location, she noted that many workers with precarious part-time employment are making tradeoffs: many women have to care for children or other family members; while many men are engaged in education.

A participant noted a large portion of people in low-income jobs who have post-secondary education. He expressed concern about the level of active racism in the job market in relation to new immigrants.

Galabuzi noted that new immigrants face higher levels of unemployment than in the past. When the majority of immigrants were from the South, there was a trajectory whereby they converged with the rest of the population within a number of years. In the last 10-15 years that trajectory has changed: There is now a divergence, even though Canada is attracting more highly educated people.

Back to Reporting

For more information about the conference, contact:
 
Sarah Zgraggen
The Willow Group
Tel: (613) 722-8796;
Fax: (613) 729-6206;
e-mail: szgraggen@thewillowgroup.com