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Erica Yeo

Canada's wage gap at record high: OECD - The Globe and Mail - 1 views

www.theglobeandmail.com/...article4099041

inequality canada challenges globeandmail skillsgap

shared by Erica Yeo on 23 Nov 12 - No Cached
  • gap between Canada’s rich and poor is growing
  • the income gap in Canada is well above the 34-country average, though still not as extreme as in the United States
  • Countries with greater income inequality tend to see shorter, less sustained periods of economic growth
  • ...21 more annotations...
  • Greater inequality raises economic, political and ethical challenges as it risks leaving a growing number of people behind in an ever-changing economy
  • the top federal marginal income tax rates tumbled – to 29 per cent in 2010 from 43 per cent in 1981
  • Canada’s growing gap: a widening disparity in labour earnings between high- and low-paid workers, and less redistribution.
  • Taxes and benefits reduce inequality less in Canada than in most OECD countries
  • Shifts in the labour market are a key reason why the gap is widening
  • Technological progress has been more beneficial to high-skilled workers, while the gap in men’s earnings in particular is growing ever wider
  • annual hours of low-wage workers in Canada have fallen to 1,100 hours from 1,300 hours, while those of higher-wage workers fell by less, to 2,100 from 2,200 hours
  • Rising self-employment
  • the self-employed typically earn less than other full-time workers
  • Taxation
  • Canada’s tax-benefit system was as effective as those of the Nordic countries in stabilizing equality, offsetting more than 70 per cent of the rise of market-income inequality
  • taxes and benefits now offset less than 40 per cent of the rise in inequality
  • inequality has been rising more rapidly in Canada than in the U.S.
  • social implications
  • income inequality with poor health outcomes
  • 11-year difference in life expectancy between men who live in its poorest neighbourhood and those its richest
  • Taxing the rich
  • closing loopholes
  • compliance with tax rules
  • education, skills training and job retraining programs
  • More and better jobs, enabling people to escape poverty and offering real career prospects, is the most important challenge
  • burmangabriel on 23 Nov 12
     
    1) What do you think are possible solutions for the rising inequality? 2) Since the rich are taking a higher percent of overall income and Canada is in debt, do you agree with lowering their taxes?
Erica Yeo

Divisions between haves and have-nots begin with having skills - or not - The Globe and... - 1 views

www.theglobeandmail.com/...article4906878

inequality divisions globeandmail challenges currentevents

shared by Erica Yeo on 22 Nov 12 - No Cached
  • Baby boomers are targeted because after struggling to get an education in skills that would land a job, and after decades of effort, they have accumulated some wealth.
  • To them, we symbolize intergenerational inequality.
  • Your future will be defined by how well you learn skills that match the needs of the job market. Those who gain useful skills will find higher paying, more rewarding jobs; those without that knowledge will face low-paying, unstable prospects.
  • ...9 more annotations...
  • fail to report what portion of their graduates find work that requires a university education.
  • large numbers of unfilled jobs co-existing with high levels of youth unemployment.
  • what if Canadian universities were the root cause of the skills gap, rather than the solution?
  • progressively widening inequality gap between members of your own generation.
  • 40 per cent of Canadian university graduates aged 25 to 29 were employed in “low-skill” jobs,
  • Canadian graduates turning to jobs-focused colleges for further training.
  • reduces Canadian productivity and prosperity
  • they just keep spending public money to produce graduates with few job prospects,
  • And the class of 2013 may come to realize that the most damaging inequality is not that of financial disparity, but rather the inequality of hope.
  • Erica Yeo on 23 Nov 12
     
    Discussion Questions: 1. Why should a widening financial income gap be concerning to the economy? 2. What are the economic differences of the baby boomer's generation (1940's-1960's) and the current generation? Do you think these differences affected the education requirement of today's jobs?
Erica Yeo

The widening gap in Canada's labour market - The Globe and Mail - 1 views

www.theglobeandmail.com/...article4104784

inequality canada challenges skillsgap solutions globeandmail

shared by Erica Yeo on 16 Jan 13 - No Cached
  • A fault line is splintering Canada’s labour market into those who can’t find work and those who can’t find workers.
  • employers across the country say they can’t find the right workers for all kinds of available jobs.
  • Groups with high jobless rates such as aboriginal people, recent immigrants and those with disabilities are struggling to land good jobs, limiting their ability to climb the economic ladder.
  • ...11 more annotations...
  • At the same time, employers from Newfoundland and Labrador to the Prairies say shortages are constraining their ability to grow, innovate and compete.
  • Structural shifts in the labour market mean “workers in declining industries may not have the skills or experience to match immediately the needs of employers in expanding industries,”
  • Unemployment is high, even as the number of job vacancies continues to rise
  • That means more-efficient partnerships between employers and universities and colleges,
  • Despite the presence of the local universities churning out tech graduates, he estimates there are about 1,900 current vacancies for technical jobs in the Kitchener-Waterloo region “that are unfilled and have been for some time.
  • Last month it called on the federal and provincial governments to work with employers to find strategies to overcome expected shortfalls.
  • It says improving skills and workplace training should become a national priority, and recommended more companies make a “strategic decision to take a direct role in creating the skilled workforces and talent pipelines they need.”
  • In Canada, part of the problem is that many people haven’t pursued careers in areas where all the job growth is happening. Mining and energy extraction are, by far, the fastest-growing segments of job growth in Canada over the past year, with employment gains of 5.7 per cent.
  • “The lack of young people pursuing further education in engineering and science and technology, is definitely a strain on our ability to grow,”
  • the labour market imbalance “is the largest threat to our economy,”
  • Without that effort, he estimates 1.5 million jobs could go unfilled in 10 years’ time.
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