What needs to be done to make employment less precarious

SOLUTIONS

Looking for potential solutions to the city’s precarious employment problem? Here are a few of the Precarity Penalty report’s recommendations:

Improve training opportunities to help get precarious workers into good jobs in a cohesive “workforce development strategy”

Consider changes to the Employment Standards Act to provide advance scheduling notice for workers

Expand access to prescription drug benefits for low-income Ontarians

Develop an affordable, accessible, and high quality child-care system

Collect better labour market data to better understand how precarious employment is changing

Make it easier for newcomers to get their credentials recognized

WHAT PRECARIOUS WORK LOOKS LIKE

Income uncertainty

More than 60 per cent of precarious workers surveyed said their incomes sometimes varied from week to week

Underemployment

Nearly 30 per cent of precarious workers went for more than a month without work in 2014. Nearly one in four expect their hours of paid work to drop in the next six months.

Erratic scheduling

A quarter of precarious workers surveyed report having unexpected changes to their work schedule, and almost half say they get less than a week’s scheduling notice

Benefits

Only 8 per cent of precarious workers get medical benefits, compared to 100 per cent of those in secure employment

Those in secure jobs are also seven times more likely to have an employer-funded pension plan

Rights

Just 12 per cent of precarious workers are paid if they miss a day’s work, compared to 100 per cent of those in secure employment

One third of the precariously employed report that they feel uncomfortable asserting their workplace rights

They are also three times less likely to belong to a union