[1] Authorship is alphabetical to reflect equal contribution.

 

[2] This analysis is based on Statistics Canada Microdata files which contain anonymized data collected from 1999-2009 Survey of Labour and Income Dynamics. All computations on these microdata were prepared by Andrea Noack (Ryerson University), and the responsibility for the use and interpretation of these data is entirely that of the author(s).

[3] Ulrich Mückenberger, “Non-standard Forms of Employment in the Federal Republic of Germany: The Role and Effectiveness of the State” in Gerry Roberts & Janine Rogers, eds., Precarious Jobs in Labour Market Regulation: The Growth of Atypical Employment in Western Europe (Geneva: International Institute for Labour Studies, 1989) 167; C.S. Bütchetmann & S. Quack, “How Precarious is ‘Non-Standard Employment? Evidence for West Germany” (1990) 14 Cambridge Journal of Economics 315.

[4] See, for example: Cynthia J. Cranford and Leah F. Vosko, “Conceptualizing Precarious Employment: Mapping Wage Work across Social Location and Occupational Context” in Leah F. Vosko, ed., Precarious Employment: Understanding Labour Market Insecurity in Canada (Montreal and Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2006) 43; Tania Das Gupta, “Union Renewal and Precarious Employment: A Case Study of Hotel Workers” in Leah F. Vosko, ed., Precarious Employment: Understanding Labour Market Insecurity in Canada (Montreal: McGill-Queens University Press, 2006) 318; Leah F. Vosko and Nancy Zukewich, “Precarious by Choice? Gender and Self-Employment” in Leah F. Vosko, ed., Precarious Employment: Understanding Labour Market Insecurity in Canada (Montreal and Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2006) 67; Grace Edward Galabuzi, “Racializing the Division of Labour: Neoliberal Restructuring and the Economic Segregation of Canada’s Racialized Groups” in Jim Stanford and Leah F. Vosko, ed., Challenging the Market: The Struggle to Regulate Work and Income (Montreal and Kingston, McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2004) 175.

[5] See, for example: Pat Armstrong & Kate Laxer, “Precarious Work, Privatization, and the Health-Care Industry” in Leah F. Vosko, ed., Precarious Employment: Understanding Labour Market Insecurity in Canada (Montreal and Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2006) 115.

[6] Jean Bernier, Guylaine Vallée & Carol Jobin, “Les Besoins de Protection Sociale des Personnes en Situation de Travail Non Tradtionnelle” Rapport final (Quebec: Ministére du Travail, 2003); Vallée, Towards Enhancing the Employment Conditions of Vulnerable Workers: A Public Policy Perspective (Ottawa: Canadian Policy Research Networks, 2005); Stephanie Bernstein, “Mitigating Precarious Employment in Quebec: The Role of Minimum Employment Standards Legislation” in Leah F. Vosko, ed., Precarious Employment: Understanding Labour Market Insecurity in Canada (Montreal & Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2006) 221; Katherine Lippel, “Precarious Employment and Occupational Health and Safety Regulation in Quebec” in Leah F. Vosko, ed., Precarious Employment: Understanding Labour Market Insecurity in Canada (Montreal and Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2006) 241.

[7] Gerhard Bosch, “Towards a New Standard Employment Relationship in Western Europe” (2004) 42:2 British Journal of Industrial Relations 617 at 618.

[8] See, for example: Bütchetmann & Quack, note 1 at 51; Gerry Rodgers, “Precarious Work in Western Europe: The State of the Debate” in Gerry Rodgers and Janine Rodgers, eds., Precarious Jobs in Labour Market Regulation: The Growth of Atypical Employment in Western Europe (Belgium: International Institute for Labour Studies, 1989) 1; Judy Fudge, “Little Victories and Big Defeats: The Rise and Fall of Collective Bargaining Rights for Domestic Workers in Ontario” in Abigail Bess Bakan & Daiva K. Stasiulis, eds., Not One of the Family: Foreign Domestic Workers in Canada (Toronto, Buffalo and London: University of Toronto Press, 1997) 119; Vosko, Temporary Work: The Gendered Rise of a Precarious Employment Relationship (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2000).

[9] Wallace Clement, Sophie Mathieu, Steven Prus and Emre Uckardesler, “Precarious Lives in the New Economy: Comparative Intersectional Analysis” in Leah F. Vosko, Martha MacDonald & Iain Campbell, eds., Gender and the Contours of Precarious Employment (London; New York, NY: Routledge, 2009) 240.

[10] See, for example: Fudge, Eric Tucker & Vosko, The Legal Concept of Employment: Marginalizing Workers Report (Toronto: Law Commission of Canada, 2002); Cynthia J. Cranford, Fudge, Tucker & Vosko, Self-Employed Workers Organize: Law Policy and Unions (Montreal and Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2005) at 208; Karen D. Hughes, Female Enterprise in the New Economy (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2005); Vosko, Managing the Margins: Gender, Citizenship and the International Regulation of Precarious Employment (Politics and Business Series) (Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2010).

[11] Zhengxi Lin, Janice Yates and Garnett Picot, Rising Self-employment in the Midst of High Unemployment: An Empirical Analysis of Recent Developments in Canada (Ottawa: Analytical Studies Branch, Statistics Canada, 1999). Online: Statistics Canada ,

< http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/11f0019m/11f0019m1999133-eng.pdf> (last accessed: 18 September 2011)

[12] See, for example: Judy Fudge, “A New Gender Contract?: Work-life Balance and Working-time Flexibility” in Joanne Conaghan & Kerry Rittich, eds., Labour Law, Work and Family: Critical and Comparative Perspectives (Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 2005) 261; Eric Tucker, “Star Wars: Newspaper Distribution Workers and the Possibilities and Limits of Collective Bargaining” in Cynthia J. Cranford, Judy Fudge, Eric Tucker & Leah F. Vosko eds., Self-Employed Workers Organize: Law, Policy, and Unions (Montréal: McGill-Queens University Press, 2005) 29.

[13] Sylvia Fuller and Vosko, “Temporary Employment and Social Inequality in Canada: Exploring Intersections of Gender, Race and Migration” (2008) 88:1 Social Indicators Research 31.

[14] See, for example: Vosko, note 6 at 52; Katherine Stone, From Widgets to Digits: Employment Regulation for the Changing Workplace (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004); Fuller & Vosko, note 11 at 53.

[15] Based on research examining trends in Canada, Australia, the United States and the EU 15, elsewhere Vosko (2010) also shows that when we conflate precarious employment and non-standard employment we risk obscuring and reinforcing the very problems that need to be addressed – namely, the SER-centric nature of labour regulation (Vosko, note 8 at 52).

[16] In this analysis, we rely on the reported hourly wage for the main job at the end of the reference year (or at the end of the job, if it concluded before the reference year). This is compared to the low wage cutoff of 1.5 times the minimum wage at the end of the reference year.

[17] Statistics Canada, Low Income Lines, 2009-2010, Income Research Paper Series, Income Statistics Division, Catalogue no. 75F0002M, no. 002 (Ottawa: Minister of Industry, 2011).

[18] Ibid

[19] On Ontario, see especially: J. O’Grady, “Beyond the Wagner Act, What Then?” in D. Drache, ed., Getting on Track (Montreal and Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 1991) 153; Fudge, Meeting the Needs of Vulnerable Workers: Proposals for Improved Employment Legislation and Access to Collective Bargaining for Domestic Workers and Industrial Homeworkers submitted by Ontario District Council of the International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union and Intercede. (Toronto: Intercede, Toronto Organization for Domestic Workers’ Rights, 1993); Mary Gellatly, John Grundy, Kiran Mirchandani, Adam Perry, Mark Thomas & Vosko, “‘Modernizing’ Employment Standards? Administrative Efficiency, Market Regulation and the Production of the Illegitimate Claimant in Ontario, Canada” (2011) 22:2 Economic and Labour Relations Review 81.

[20] P. Armstrong and Hugh Armstrong, The Double Ghetto: Canadian Women and their Segregated Work (Toronto: Oxford University Press, 2001).

[21] Cranford, Vosko, & Zukewich, “The Gender of Precarious Employment in Canada” (2003) 58:3 Relations Industrielles/ Industrial Relations, 454.

[22] For instance, in the Canadian context and elsewhere, Vosko (2000, 2006 & 2010), Fudge & Vosko (2001a and b), Cranford & Vosko (2006), Tucker (2006), and Fuller & Vosko (2008) show that women, immigrants and people of colour are more likely to hold jobs characterized by dimensions of labour market insecurity. (Vosko, note 16 at 53; Vosko, ed., Precarious Employment: Understanding Labour Market Insecurity in Canada (Montreal and Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2006); Vosko, note 8 at 52; Fudge & Vosko “Gender, Segmentation and the Standard Employment Relationship in Canadian Labour Law and Policy.” (2001a) 22:2 Economic and Industrial Democracy 271; Fudge & Vosko, “By Whose Standards? Re-Regulating the Canadian Labour Market” (2001b) 22:3 Economic and Industrial Democracy, 327; Cranford & Vosko, note 3 at 51; Tucker, note 10 at 52; Fuller & Vosko, note 11 at 58).

[23] Age is another prominent dimension of labour market inequality. We do not develop an age-based analysis here, however, as this dimension is being addressed more fully in the Law Commission’s series on young workers.

[24] Statistics Canada, Labour Force Historical Review 2009 (table 86), Catalogue No. 71F0004XVB (Ottawa: Minister of Industry, 2010).

[25] Shifts in the industrial and occupational composition of the solo self-employed and the employer self-employed may accompany this apparent constancy but tracking these patterns is beyond the scope of our analysis.

[26] Fudge, Tucker & Vosko, note 8 at 52; Hughes, “Pushed or Pulled? Women’s Entry into Self-Employment and Small Business Ownership” (2003) 10:4 Gender, Work and Organization, 433.

[27] Vosko, “The Challenge of Expanding EI Coverage: Charting Exclusions and Partial
Exclusions on the Bases of Gender, Immigration Status, Age, and Place of Residence and
Exploring Avenues for Inclusive Policy Redesign,” monograph prepared for Mowat Commission
on Unemployment Insurance (Toronto: Mowat Centre for Public Policy, Toronto, 2011).

[28] Throughout this analysis, we use data from 2008 as the primary reporting year. At the time of submission, there was only limited access to the 2009 data through a remote access system. Wherever possible, we have included data from 2009 in order to show changes over time.

[29] Timothy J. Bartkiw, “Manufacturing Descent?: Labour Law and Union Organizing in the Province of Ontario” (2008) 34:1 Canadian Public Policy, 111.

[30]Harry Arthurs, “A Fine Balance: Safe Pensions, Affordable Plans, Fair Rules” (Ontario, Report of the Expert Commission on Pensions, 2007).

[31] The minimum wage cut-off has been adjusted to reflect provincial minimum wages each year.

[32] Mark P. Thomas, Regulating Flexibility: The Political Economy of Employment Standards (Montréal: McGill Queen’s University Press, 2009); Gellatly et al, note 17 at 53.

[33] Andrew Jackson, “Forum: Reorganizing Unions: Solidarity Forever? Trends in Canadian Union Density” (2004) 74 Studies in Political Economy, 124 at 141; Sharanjit Uppal, “Unionization, 2010”, Catalogue no. 75-001-X (Ottawa: Statistics Canada, October 2010) at 18.

[34] Bernstein, note 4 at 51.

[35] See also Gellatly et al, note 17 at 53.

[36] Fudge & Vosko 2001b, note 20.

[37] Antonella Picchio, “Wages as a Reflection of Socially Embedded Production and Reproduction Processes” in Linda Clarke, Peter de Gijsel & Jorn Janssen, eds., The Dynamics of Wage Relations in the New Europe (London: Kluwer, 1998) 195.

[38] Ernest B. Akyeampong, “Collective Bargaining Priorities” (2005) 17:3 Perspectives on Labour and Income, 41 at 44.

[39] Patrice A. Dutil and Ronald Saunders, New Approaches in Achieving Compliance with Statutory Employment Standards (Ottawa: Canadian Policy Research Networks; Toronto: Institute of Public Administration of Canada, July 2005).

[40] This apparent decline should be interpreted with caution as it may be the result of precarious jobs in agriculture being increasingly filled by temporary foreign workers, whose experiences are unlikely to be reported in this survey. The household telephone sampling methodology used in the SLID relies on land-line telephones, which are unlikely to be used in the temporary or group living accommodations used by some foreign workers.  Further, temporary foreign workers – especially those with limited English skills – may be less likely to respond to telephone survey requests.

[41] Data on the racial and ethnic composition, as well as the immigrants status, of the agricultural industry in Ontario is suppressed by Statistics Canada because of small cell sizes, which pose a threat to the confidentiality of the data.

[42] For more information on the industry classifications used in this analysis and the specific jobs which they include, please see: <http://www.statcan.gc.ca/subjects-sujets/standard-norme/naics-scian/2002/naics-scian02l-eng.htm> (last accessed: 18 September, 2011).

[43] Jane Jenson, “The Talents of Women, the Skills of Men” in Stephan Wood, ed., The Transformation of Work? Skill Flexibility and the Labour Process (London: Unwin Hyman, 1989) 141; Sylvia Walby, “Flexibility and the Changing Sexual Division of Labour” in Stephan Wood, ed., The Transformation of Work? Skills, Flexibility and Labour Process (London: Unwin Hyman, 1989) 127.

[44] P. Armstrong & Laxer, note 7 at 52.

[45] For more information on the occupational classifications used in this analysis and the specific jobs which they include, please see: <http://www.statcan.gc.ca/subjects-sujets/standard-norme/soc-cnp/2001/noc2001-cnp2001-menu-eng.htm> (last accessed, 18 September, 2011).

[46] Vosko, Temporary Work: The Gendered Rise of a Precarious Employment Relationship (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2000).

[47] P. Armstrong, “The Feminization of the Labour Force: Harmonizing Down in a Global Economy” in Isabelle Bakker, ed., Rethinking Restructuring: Gender and Change in Canada (Toronto, Buffalo, NY: University of Toronto Press, 1996) 29.

[48] Chinese Interagency Network “Chinese Workers are not protected by ESA”, (August 2010) online: Chinese Canadian Council Toronto Chapter <http://www.ccnctoronto.ca/?q=node/343> (last accessed: 13 September 2011).

[49] More than 80% of Ontario’s population lives in a metropolitan area (Census Data, Statistics Canada, 2006) Online: accessed via University of Toronto SDA < http://sda.chass.utoronto.ca/sdaweb/index.html>

[50] Das Gupta, note 2 at 51.

[51] Bartkiw 2008, note 27 at 54; Uppal 2010, note 31 at 55.

[52] Vallée and Jean Charest “Globalization and the Transformation of State Regulation of Labour: the Case of Recent Amendments to the Quebec Collective Agreement Decrees Act,” (2001) 17:1 International Journal of Comparative Labour Law and Industrial Relations, Kluwer Law International, 79; Michel Grant, “Deregulating Industrial Relations in the Apparel Sector: The Decree System in Quebec” in Jim Stanford & Leah F. Vosko, eds., Challenging the Market: The Struggle to Regulate Work and Income (Montréal: McGill-Queens University Press, 2004), 135. See also Cranford, Fudge, Tucker & Vosko, Self-Employed Workers Organize: Law Policy and Unions (Montreal and Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2005) at 186-192.

[53] Fudge, Tucker & Vosko 2002, note 8 at 52.

[54] Fudge & Vosko 2001a, note 20; Vosko 2010, note 8 at 52.

[55] Stephen J. Blumberg & Julian V. Luke , Wireless Substitution: Early Release of Estimates Based on the National Health Interview Survey, July-December 2006 (Atlanta, GA: U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 14 May 2007).

[56] Although large national surveys must necessarily strike a balance between the breadth and depth of content, the integration of better measures of job quality into one or more national surveys would signal a policy commitment to improving job quality in Canada. There are several international models for improving survey data related to job quality; for instance, the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) survey includes twelve items assessing subjective psychosocial characteristics of work, which appear to reflect three general components of job quality: job demands and complexity, job control and job security (Liana Leach, Peter Butterworth, Bryan Rodgers & Lyndall Strazdins 2010). In order to better capture the situation of workers in precarious jobs, we would also recommend sponsoring research that specifically captures the experiences of workers who are likely to be underrepresented in randomly-selected telephone surveys. More diverse sampling strategies and measurements of job quality will allow policy makers to make better informed decisions. (Liana Leach, Peter Butterworth, Brayn Rodgers & Lyndall Strazdins, “Deriving an Evidence-Based Measure of Job Quality from the HILDA Survey” (July 1, 2010) No. 9 Australian Social Policy Journal 67.)

[57] Statistics Canada, Survey of Labour and Income Dynamics (SLID) – 2009 Survey Overview, Cat. No 75F0011X (Ottawa: Statistics Canada 2010b) Online: <http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/75f0011x/75f0011x2011001-eng.htm> (last accessed: 18 September, 2011)
[58] Statistics Canada, Methodology of the Canadian Labour Force Survey (Ottawa, ON: Ministry of Industry 2008)  Online: <http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/71-526-x/71-526-x2007001-eng.pdf> (last accessed: 18 September, 2011).

[59] Bastien, Jean-François, Data Quality for the 2009 Survey of Labour and Income Dynamics (SLID) (Ottawa: Statistics Canada, 2009)  Online: <http://www.statcan.gc.ca/imdb-bmdi/document/3889_D13_T2_V3-eng.pdf> (last accessed: 18 September, 2011).

[60] Ibid

 

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