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What’s New
Time to think about Employment Equity legislation again?
The Wellesley Institute has just released a report entitled Canada’s Colour-Coded Labour Market. You can download it from the page on that link.
According to the report, racialized Canadians, even in the second generation, have persistently lower earnings and lower-quality jobs. This points to systemic racism in Canadian workplaces. I think it’s time to expand employment equity legislation to ensure that workplace stakeholders are looking for the reasons for under-representation and then putting in place the measures to get rid of the barriers and ensure a representative workforce at all levels of organizations.
Among the Wellesley Institute study’s findings:
- In 2006, during the boom years, racialized Canadians had an unemployment rate of 8.6 per cent, as compared to 6.2 per cent for non-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%.
- Racialized workers are over-represented in industries with precarious low-paid jobs; they are under-represented in public administration, and more likely to work in the hard-hit light manufacturing sector.
- The colour code contributes to much higher poverty levels: In 2005, 19.8% of racialized families lived in poverty, compared to 6.4% of non-racialized families.
On a lighter note, the image to the right is evidence of my early scientific experience.
I was a subject for my father, an audiologist, who was was researching useful audiological tests for young patients in the mid-50s and used me in the demonstration he published in a professional journal.
Dr. David Green, and subject, Daina Green