September 2014

Labour data raises flags, more questions on racialized worker participation

on Sep 22, 2014
Posted by Jo Snyder

This week, the Wellesley Institute published The Colour Coded Labour Market By The Numbers: A National Household Survey Analysis.

What the report sought to do was look at racialized labour market data in Ontario and compare it to previous work done using 2006 Census data, to see how the trends in the labour experience of racialized Ontarians have changed over time. 

The report sought to answer some critical questions: is the income gap for racialized...

Can more education solve Canada’s income inequality problem?

on Sep 18, 2014
Posted by Lars Osberg

Since the early 1980s, middle class incomes in Canada and the United States have stagnated while the incomes of the top 1% have, with occasional short interruptions, grown dramatically. As a result, the top 1% income share in the U.S. increased from 10.8% of total income in 1982 to 22.5% in 2012. Tax data in Canada show a smaller increase, but it is hard to be completely sure since the top 1% in Canada have been able to shelter some of their income increase from view (in Canadian...

As inequality grows, so does the will to fight it

on Sep 12, 2014
Posted by Rick Smith

Call me crazy, but as our elected representatives return to Parliament next week, I’m actually feeling a little hopeful.

That’s because as we approach a critical election next year, the pressing issue of inequality might finally take centre stage. It’s more than a hunch. Inequality is clearly forming roots in the public imagination.

The soil was fertilized by the success of Thomas Piketty’s authoritative economic tome on inequality, Capital in the Twenty-First Century , and we’re now seeing the problem being raised by a diverse group of people

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