Inequality, regarding the workplace and workforce, refers to a state of being which involves an absence of opportunity, fairness, and equality, coupled with the presence of extreme variability for a person or group. This extreme variability in work related conditions can lead to the development of strong feelings of insecurity in any person who has experienced such inequality. Insecurity is a feeling or situation people may experience where there is uncertainty, instability, a lack of safe working conditions, and feelings of doubt about work etc. One can argue that inequality leads to insecurity or vice versa; where negative experiences, continuing over extended periods in the market, lead to another group of negative experiences for the groups in question. Starting with a broad perspective on income inequality in Canada, we can see the difference between the top 10% of earners and the rest of the population. The majority of economic growth went to the richest 10%. The top 1% acquired 12.2% of all incomes. All Canadian families, save for the top 10%, were working more hours compared to about 10 years ago, but incomes stagnated. This lack of growth negatively affected the middle class. This squeeze came in the form of 30 years of stuck wages, increases in housing prices, high debt, low-savings, more precarious work, two income households, and a decrease in unionization rates of 8% over the last 10 years. The poorest in Canada did much worse. Canada’s poorest worked more hours too, but their earnings fell from about 15000 in 1976 to 11000 in 2006. (The Conference Board of Canada, 2011) To be more specific, we can divide the poor and disadvantaged into their distinct groups. Women today, earn around 72 cents for every ... ... middle of paper ... ...original.htm The Conference Board of Canada (2011). Hot Topic: Canadian Income Inequality. Is Canada becoming more unequal. Ottawa, ON: AERIC Inc. Retrieved January 2012 from http://www.conferenceboard.ca/hcp/hot-topics/canInequality.aspx The Conference Board of Canada (2009). Society: Gender Income Gap. Ottawa, ON: AERIC Inc. Retrieved January 2012 from http://www.conferenceboard.ca/hcp/Details/society/gender-income-gap.aspx Ehrenreich, B. (2005). Downward mobility, and conclusion. In Bait and switch. The (futile) pursuit of the American dream (pp. 191-211; 213-237). New York: Henry Holt and Company. Galabuzi, G.-E. (2006). The economic exclusion of racialized communities: A statistical profile. Chapter 4 in Canada`s economic apartheid: The Social exclusion of racialized groups in the new century (pp. 90-123). Toronto, ON: Canadian Scholars ‘Press.
Tencer, Daniel. "Income Inequality: Canada Does Surprisingly Little To Reduce Wage Gap. “The Huffington Post. The Huffington Post, Winter 2013. Web. 02 Apr. 2014.
In Canada there is no official, government mandated poverty line. It is generally agreed that poverty refers to the intersection of low-income and other dimensions of ‘social exclusion’, including things such as access to adequate housing, essential goods and services, health and well-being and community participation. In Canada, the gap between the rich and poor is on the rise, with four million people struggling to find decent affordable housing, (CHRA) and almost 21% of children in BC are living in poverty it is crucial to address poverty (Stats Can). In class we have considered a number of sociological lens to examine poverty. Structural-functionalists maintain that stratification and inequality are inevitable and
Raphael, Dennis. Poverty in Canada: implications for health and quality of life. 2nd ed. Toronto: Canadian Scholars' Press Inc., 2011. Print.
Canadian workplaces today seem to be a fairly diverse place, with a blend of many religions, ethnicities, and genders present. However, although people preach affirmative action and melting pots in current times, many inequality and power issues still abound. One strikingly noticeable example is gender discrimination. Women in the workforce face many challenges like smaller wages, harassment, male privilege in hiring or promotions, and lack of support when pregnant or raising children. One half of the planet is women, and it can be assumed the same for Canada, but they still face judgment at work because they lack the authority to dispute against big corporations or even their male supervisor. It cannot be argued that Canadian women’s status has worsened over the past hundred years, of course, thanks to feminism and activism. However, their status is not as high as it could be. Women as a group first started fighting for workplace equality during the second wave of feminism, from the 1960s to the 1990s. Legislation was approved during the second wave to try to bring gender equality to the workplace. Feminists both collided and collaborated with unions and employers to ensure women received fair treatment in an occupation. Quebec had the same issues, only the province approached the conflict differently than English Canada with its own unique viewpoint. It became clear that women were entering the workplace and did not plan on leaving. Second-wave feminism in Canada shifted power from the government and businesses to women in order to try to bring equality, although the discrimination never completely disappeared.
Developed countries have often pride themselves as role models on issues of social equality to developing countries; however, gender, ethnic, and class disparity is prevalent in ‘wealthy’ countries. More importantly, it is implicit in that citizens believe that social equality exists, but in actuality disadvantaged individuals and groups still face several obstacles in reaching such equality. This paper will specifically focus on gender inequality in Canada. Canada is a country that has deemed itself as a progressive society due to its multicultural and hospitable character in which legislati...
Teelucksingh, C., & Edward-Galabuzi, G. (2005). C. Teelucksingh & G. Edward-Galabuzi (Eds.), Working Precariously: The impact of race and immigrants status on employment opportunities and outcomes in CanadaToronto: The Canadian Race Relations Foundation.
Systemic discrimination has been a part of Canada’s past. Women, racial and ethnic minorities as well as First Nations people have all faced discrimination in Canada. Policies such as, Charter of Rights and Freedoms, provincial and federal Human Rights Codes, as well has various employment equity programs have been placed in Canada’s constitution to fight and address discrimination issues. Despite these key documents placed for universal rights and freedoms Aboriginal and other minority populations in Canada continue to be discriminated against. Many believe there is no discrimination in Canada, and suggest any lack of success of these groups is a result of personal decisions and not systemic discrimination. While others feel that the legislation and equality policies have yet resulted in an equal society for all minorities. Racism is immersed in Canadian society; this is clearly shown by stories of racial profiling in law enforcement.
“Honey, you’re not a person, now get back in the kitchen and make me a sandwich!” If a husband were to say these words to his wife today, he would likely receive a well-deserved smack to the face. It is not until recently that Canadian women have received their status as people and obtained equal rights as men. Women were excluded from an academic education and received a lesser pay than their male counter parts. With the many hardships women had to face, women were considered the “slave of slaves” (Women’s Rights). In the past century, women have fought for their rights, transitioning women from the point of being a piece of property to “holding twenty-five percent of senior positions in Canada” (More women in top senior positions: Report). The Married Women’s Property Act, World War I, The Person’s Case, and Canadian Human Rights Act have gained Canadian women their rights.
Raphael, D. D. (2002). Poverty, Income Inequality and Health in Canada. CSJ Foundation for Research and Education, 1-32.
An official ranking of interprovincial disparities of wealth and income hardly changed since the 1920s. The importance of natural resources to the Canadian economy reinforced the power of provinc...
Al-Waqfi, M., & Jain, H. C., (2008). RACIAL INEQUALITY IN EMPLOYMENT IN CANADA: EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS AND EMERGING TRENDS.
Today in the United States, gender inequality is prevalent in the home, sports, schools, politics, and the workplace. Of all situations, the workplace has to be, by far, the most critical. Being that discrimination based on gender directly affects a woman’s income, the gender wage gap needs to be permanently closed. In households in which only the mother is employed, single-parent households, one woman households in which there are no children, and two-woman households, women face the adversity of making less than their male counterpart, and the difference in their pay could be what determines whether their family lives in poverty. As a woman of color or disabled woman, that amount could be even lower. For these reasons, employers must offer the same pay to all employees who are doing the same work, regardless of gender.
Sutter, John. “What is income inequality, anyway?” CNN. 29 Oct. 2013. Web. 13 Feb. 2014.
Al-Waqfi & Jain (2008) examine racial discrimination trends in the employment circles in Canada using data that is sampled from randomly selected legal cases that are documented from the Canadian Human Rights’ groups. This article describes some of the major theoretical perspectives that describe racial discrimination. Of significant importance is the trend in such employment discrimination within the last two decades. Through the help of data from the documented legal cases, Al-Waqfi & Jain (2008) assert that racial diversity within Canada’s population as well as workforce has been on the rise. The two authors use reliable census data to demonstrate how the statistics of the victims of such discrimination have almost tripled in the last ...
The division of labour and education along gender lines, racial inequalities and discrimination, and unpaid domestic labour all contribute to the growing feminization of poverty. Feminists are working to decrease the income gap, to benefit the overall health of women and the population at large. The term feminization of poverty describes the disproportionate amount of women who are poor, and its link to the division of labour along gender lines (Calixte, Johnson, & Motapanyane, 2010). The Canadian Labour Congress reported that in 2005, women working full time earned 70.5 cents to the dollar that every male in a comparable job earned ( as cited in Calixte, et al., 2010, p. 17) Across the board, women are more likely to suffer from poverty than men are (Harnan, 2006). Feminists are constantly trying to decrease the wage gap with activism.