Archive for the ‘Economy/Employment’ Category
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Oh! What a Lovely Trade War
Rapid growth in globalization has hurt some American workers, and an import surge after 2000 disrupted industries and communities… globalization has already happened, and U.S. industries are now embedded in a web of international transactions. So a trade war would disrupt communities the same way that rising trade did in the past… Also, the tariffs now being proposed would boost capital-intensive industries that employ relatively few workers per dollar of sales… [and] further tilt the distribution of income against labor.
Tags: economy, globalization, ideology, participation, standard of living
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Minimum wage hike won’t bring ‘doom and gloom,’ economists say
“Doom-and-gloom predictions” about the impact of minimum wage increases on job losses and inflation are not supported by evidence, according to a group of Canadian economists… some 40 economics experts from across the country claim the move “makes good economic sense” and could generate “substantial benefit to low-wage workers, their families and the economy as a whole.”
Tags: economy, featured, globalization, ideology, participation, standard of living
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Ontario gets it right with move to higher minimum wage
For over 20 years now, many highly credible studies have found that the disemployment effects of higher minimum wages are generally very close to zero… Substantial recent research in Canada, the United States and Britain also concludes that higher minimum wages succeed in lifting incomes for low-paid workers and reducing wage inequality… recent minimum wage increases are boosting spending power for low-income workers and reducing inequality.
Tags: economy, featured, globalization, ideology, participation, standard of living
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New Ontario legislation ensures workers can take at least 10 sick days a year without a doctor’s note
Bosses will be banned from asking employees for sick notes if they take 10 or fewer days a year under proposed legislation that would take effect next January 1. The measure… means fewer wasted appointments for doctors and allows workers to stay home and get well instead of spreading their germs around… the law will ensure all workers are entitled to at least 10 personal emergency leave days annually — two of which must be paid.
Tags: Health, ideology, mental Health, standard of living
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How business also benefits from the Liberals’ latest labour reforms
Our unemployment rate of 5.8 per cent can’t get much lower; our economic growth leads the country. These are boom times for employers; but also precarious times for many employees… The beneficiaries of these reforms will be precarious employees for whom unionization has long been a remote possibility, and for whom legal protections have recently become more theoretical than practical.
Tags: economy, featured, globalization, ideology, jurisdiction, participation, standard of living
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Kathleen Wynne shows there’s nothing inevitable about precarious labour
In Ontario, about 22 per cent of workers are now employed in some form of precarious labour, many in low-wage, temporary jobs. In the GTA, that number is around 53 per cent. Yet as the traditional perks of full-time employment – predictable hours, benefits, pensions, even the guarantee of minimum wage – have become increasingly elusive, the province has failed until now to intervene.
Tags: economy, featured, ideology, jurisdiction, participation, standard of living
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Kathleen Wynne’s precarious workplace reforms fall painfully short
… she has failed to deal adequately with two aspects of the modern workplace that contribute to job insecurity. One is the growing tendency of firms to pretend that their workers are self-employed contractors. This fiction allows unscrupulous bosses to avoid shelling out for statutory benefits, such as employment insurance and vacation pay. The other is an antiquated labour relations regime that, in an economy no longer dominated by factories, makes it impossibly difficult for unions to organize.
Tags: economy, globalization, ideology, jurisdiction, participation, standard of living, tax
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Premier Kathleen Wynne announces Ontario will boost minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2019
… new technology, a shrinking manufacturing sector and fewer union jobs, among other factors, have left approximately one-third of Ontario’s 6.6 million workers vulnerable… The minimum wage will rise to $14 an hour on Jan. 1, 2018 and is set to increase to $15 the following year. About 10 per cent of Ontario workers are currently making minimum wage, but about 30 per cent are making less than $15 an hour — the majority of them women.
Tags: economy, featured, ideology, jurisdiction, participation, standard of living
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Kathleen Wynne’s modest blueprint for attacking precarious work
Precarious work makes life chaotic. It also contributes to income inequality. While the ultimate cause of precarious work lies in the globalized economy, governments can take mitigating measures to ease the pain… the report recommends that those allegedly self-employed persons who rely on one firm for their livelihood be granted all employee benefits… Some of the report’s recommendations, such as requiring employers to pay equivalent full- and part-time workers the same wage, reflect basic notions of fairness.
Tags: economy, featured, globalization, ideology, jurisdiction, pensions, standard of living
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Basic income reform would need more taxes: OECD
Welfare reforms that would introduce public payment of an unconditional basic income to everyone of working age are worth exploring but would do little to combat poverty if not financed by extra tax, the OECD said… if existing benefit systems were abolished and the funds used to pay an unconditional, flat-rate payment for all of working age, the payout would be lower than many welfare beneficiaries currently receive.
Tags: economy, ideology, participation, poverty, standard of living, tax
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