Despite an increasingly diverse population, a new report co-produced by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives and the Wellesley Institute on Canada’s racialized income gap shows a colour code is still at work in Canada’s labour market.
“We found that during the heyday of Canada’s pre-recession economic boom, racialized Canadians were more willing to work, but experienced higher levels of unemployment and earned less income than non-racialized Canadians,” says co-author Grace-Edward Galabuzi, CCPA board member and Ryerson University professor. “The distribution of work tells a disturbing story: Equal access to opportunity eludes many racialized Canadians.”
On average, non-racialized Canadian earnings grew marginally (2.7%) between 2000-2005 – tepid income gains considering the economy grew by 13.1%. But the average income of racialized Canadians declined by 0.2%. Co-author Sheila Block, Director of Economic Analysis at the Wellesley Institute and long-time CCPA Research Associate, says racialized Canadian workers earned only 81.4 cents for every dollar paid to non-racialized Canadian workers in 2005 – reflecting barriers in Canada’s workplaces.
Click here to read the report. Watch a video from the researchers below.
TORONTO – Despite an increasingly diverse population, a new report on Canada’s racialized income gap shows a colour code is still at work in Canada’s labour market.
Canada’s Colour Coded Labour Market, co-produced by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA) and the Wellesley Institute, draws on 2006 Census data to compare work and income trends among racialized and non-racialized Canadians. It’s among the more comprehensive post-Census studies on this issue
to date.
“We found that during the heyday of Canada’s pre-recession economic boom, racialized Canadians were more willing to work, but experienced higher levels of unemployment and earned less income than non-racialized Canadians,” says co-author Grace-Edward Galabuzi, CCPA board member and Ryerson University professor. “The distribution of work tells a disturbing story: Equal access to opportunity eludes many racialized Canadians.”
Co-author Sheila Block, Director of Economic Analysis at the Wellesley Institute, says racialized Canadian workers earned only 81.4 cents for every dollar paid to non-racialized Canadian workers – reflecting barriers in Canada’s workplaces.
“The work racialized Canadians are able to attain is more likely to be insecure, temporary and low paying,” Block says. “Despite an increasingly diverse population, a colour code is firmly in place.”
Among the study’s findings:
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For more information please contact: The CCPA’s Trish Hennessy (416) 525-4927 or Wellesley Institute’s Jo Snyder (416) 898-2098.
The report and a video are available at: www. policyalternatives.ca and www.wellesleyinstitute.com.
Income inequality "has emerged as a major social and economic issue" in Canada and elsewhere, writes Canadian author and political commentator Frances Russell.
"More importantly, no longer is it the sole concern of the left," Russell writes. "Such stalwarts of the economic right as the International Monetary Fund, the World Economic Forum and the British magazine The Economist are sounding alarm bells over the damage and cost inflicted on societies by wide gaps in income and wealth."
Russell cites a working paper by the IMF, which she says "points out the loss of worker bargaining power is an underlying cause of financial crises and restoring that power is key to reducing debt." If income inequality remains unaddressed, Russell suggests the revolutions taking place in the Middle East could possibly spread elsewhere.
Read the full story here.
The problem of worsening income inequality is quickly gathering steam.
At the World Economic Forum in Davos, leading experts named inequality, the concentration of wealth into the hands of a few, as a pressing problem.
“The increase in inequality is the most serious challenge for the world,” Min Zhu, a special adviser at the International Monetary Fund and a former deputy governor of the People’s Bank of China, told delegates at the Davos gathering. “I don’t think the world is paying enough attention.”
His comments echoed an earlier warning from Sir Martin Sorrell, chief executive of media giant WPP, that “inequality, the concentration of wealth is a serious issue” and that marginal tax rates may need to rise for the best-off in society.
Nouriel Roubini, professor of economics at New York University, also warned that inequality “exacerbates political instability”.
Read the full story here.
CTV's Business News Network (BNN) begins a three-part series today looking at the gap between the rich and the rest of us. Today's show, at 5 pm EST, features Robert Reich, former U.S. secretary of labour. Tomorrow's show, 5 pm EST, features the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives' own Senior Economist Armine Yalnizyan, who has long sounded the alarm about worsening income inequality in Canada.
MIT Economist Daron Acemoglu writes in The Economist that there are three main reasons to care about worsening income inequality: Harmful effects on personal well-being, limited equality of opportunity, and more concentrated political power. On the third point, he writes: "Economic power tends to beget political power even in democratic and pluralistic societies. In the United States, this tends to work through campaign contributions and access to politicians that wealth and money tend to buy. This political channel implies another, potentially more powerful and distortionary link between inequality and a non-level playing field. It may also create pathways from inequality to instability, because both the economic and political implications of inequality can create various backlashes."
Read the complete article here.
Read the CCPA's contribution in 2007 to the discussion about why income inequality matters here.
That's the tongue-in-cheek conclusion of the satiristic news source, The Onion, which names the growing gap between the rich and poor the 8th natural wonder of the world, calling the divide the "most colossal and enduring of mankind's creations." Said Committee Chariman Henri Jean-Baptiste:
Of all the epic structures the human race has devised, none is more staggering or imposing than the Gap Between Rich and Poor.
Read about it here.
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