Low income and inequality

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  • Articles and reports: 11F0019M2000160
    Geography: Canada
    Description:

    In this paper, we use census tract data to analyse changes in neighbourhood income inequality and residential economic segregation in the eight largest Canadian cities during the 1980-95 period. Is the income gap between richer and poorer neighbourhoods rising? Are high and low-income families increasingly clustered in economically homogeneous neighbourhoods? The main results are an elaboration of the spatial implications of the well documented changes that have occurred in family income and earnings inequality since 1980. We find that between neighbourhood family income (post-transfer/pre-tax) inequality rose in all cities driven by a substantial rise in neighbourhood (employment) earnings inequality. Real average earnings fell, sometimes dramatically, in low-income neighbourhoods in virtually all cities while rising moderately in higher income neighbourhoods. Strikingly, social transfers, which were the main factor stabilizing national level income inequality in the face of rising earnings inequality, had only a modest impact on changes in neighbourhood inequality. Changes in the neighbourhood distribution of earnings signal significant change in the social and economic character of many neighbourhoods. Employment was increasingly concentrated in higher income communities and unemployment in lower income neighbourhoods. Finally, we ask whether neighbourhood inequality rose primarily as a result of rising family income inequality in the city as a whole or because families were increasingly sorting themselves into "like" neighbourhoods so that neighbourhoods were becoming more economically homogeneous (economic "segregation"). We find that economic spatial segregation increased in all cities and was the major factor behind rising neighbourhood inequality in four of the eight cities. A general rise in urban family income inequality was the main factor in the remaining four cities.

    Release date: 2000-12-13

  • Surveys and statistical programs – Documentation: 75F0002M2000011
    Description:

    This report summarizes the comments received in response to a discussion paper on low income cut-offs released in January 2000.

    Release date: 2000-09-26

  • Articles and reports: 11F0019M2000140
    Geography: Canada
    Description:

    The correlation of occupational gender composition and wages is the basis of pay equity/comparable worth legislation. A number of previous studies have examined this correlation in US data, identifying some of the determinants of low wages in "female jobs", as well as important limitations of public policy in this area. There is little evidence, however, from other jurisdictions. This omission is particularly disturbing in the case of Canada, which now has some of the most extensive pay equity legislation in the world. In this paper, we provide a comprehensive picture, circa the late 1980's, of the occupational gender segregation in Canada and its consequences for wages. We also draw explicit comparisons of our findings to evidence for the United States. We find that the link between female wages and gender composition is much stronger in the United States than in Canada, where it is generally small and not statistically significant. The relatively more advantageous position of women in female jobs in Canada is found to be linked to higher unionization rates and the industry-wage effects of "public goods" sectors.

    Release date: 2000-09-05

  • Articles and reports: 11F0019M2000146
    Geography: Canada
    Description:

    In this paper, we investigate the extent to which Canadians were exposed to low income during the 1993-1996 period. Our main findings are the following. First, while 1 in 10 Canadians live in families with low income in a given year, as many as 1 in 5 are exposed to at least one year of low income during a 4-year interval. Second, 1 in 20 Canadians are exposed to low income for 4 consecutive years. Third, 40% to 60% of individuals who fall into low income in a given year will no longer have low income the following year. Fourth, some spells of low income last a long time: of all spells started in 1994, 30% lasted 3 years or more. Fifth, Canadians who are the most susceptible to low income tend to be young; to have little education; to be students and to live as unattached individuals or in lone-parent families. As well, Canadians facing disabilities that entail work limitations, those who are members of visible minorities (when considering the exposure to 4 years of low income) or who have immigrated in or after 1977 tend to experience low income. Sixth, high probabilities of being exposed to low income do not necessarily imply high income gaps, that is, the average income of those in low income may be quite close to the low income cut-off. As a result, a complete understanding of the extent to which Canadians are exposed to low income requires an analysis of both the probabilities of being exposed and the income gaps while being exposed.

    Release date: 2000-05-19

  • Articles and reports: 11F0019M2000148
    Geography: Canada
    Description:

    There is a general sense that the 1990s labour market was unique. It has been characterized by notions such as "downsizing", "technological revolution", "the knowledge-based economy", "rising job instability", and so on. This paper provides an extensive overview of the performance of the 1990s labour market, and asks just how different it was from the 1980s. It goes on to ask if the facts are consistent with many common beliefs and explanations. The paper focuses on (a) macro-level labour market outcomes, and (b) distributional outcomes. Macro-level topics include: has the nature of work changed dramatically in the 1990s? has there been a continued ratcheting up of unemployment? have we witnessed rising job instability and increased levels of layoffs? did company downsizing increase in the 1990s? why did per capita income growth stall in the 1990s? for a worker with a given level of human capital, has there been a deterioration in labour market outcomes?

    Much of the focus in the labour market over the 1980s and 1990s was on distributional outcomes - who is winning and who is losing. Some of the distributional outcomes of the 1990s labour market addressed in the paper include: outcomes for men and women; changes in the relative wages of the highly educated and earnings inequality; trends in the rate of low-income; the changing outcomes for recent labour market entrants, including young people and immigrants; and the extent to which technological change plays a major role in these outcomes.

    The paper concludes with a discussion of the overall performance of the 1990s labour market as compared to the 1980s.

    Release date: 2000-05-04

  • Articles and reports: 82-003-X19990034936
    Geography: Canada
    Description:

    Canadian provinces and metropolitan areas had generally lower income inequality and lower mortality than their US counterparts.

    Within Canada there was no association between income inequality and mortality at either the provincial or metropolitan area levels. However, this relationship is strong in the United States.

    This Canada-United States comparison suggests that the Canadian urban environment may be more beneficial to health than its US counterpart.

    Release date: 2000-03-31

  • Articles and reports: 11F0019M2000144
    Geography: Canada
    Description:

    In this paper, we revisit trends in low-income among Canadian children by taking advantage of recent developments in the measurement of low-income intensity. We focus in particular on the Sen-Shorrocks-Thon (SST) index and its elaboration by Osberg and Xu. Low-income intensity declined in the 1980s but rose in the 1990s. Declining earnings put upward pressure on low-income levels over much of the period. Higher transfers more than offset this pressure in the 1980s and continued to absorb a substantial share of the increase through 1993. In contrast, the rise in low-income intensity after 1993 reflected reductions in UI and social assistance benefits that were not offset by increased employment earnings, at least to 1996 the latest year used in this paper.

    A major aim of the paper is methodological. We contrast results using the SST index with results produced by the more familiar low-income rate, the usual measure for indexing low-income trends. The low-income rate is embedded in the SST index, but unlike the index, the rate incorporates only partial information on the distribution of low-income. Consequently, the low-income rate is generally unable to detect the changes we describe and this is true irrespective of the choice of low-income cut-off. Compared to the low-income intensity measure, the rate is also relatively insensitive to changes in transfer payments and employment earnings.

    Release date: 2000-03-30

  • Articles and reports: 11F0019M2000147
    Geography: Canada
    Description:

    This paper revisits trends in the level and distribution of income among Canadian seniors in the context of what is arguably the major source of change in these trends since the end of the seventies, the maturation of Canada's public and private earnings-related pension systems. The expanded role of earnings-related pensions in the 1980s and 1990s is largely the result of changes that occurred in the 1950s and 1960s. The Canada and Quebec Pension Plans (C/QPP) were implemented in 1966 and the first cohort to receive full C/QPP benefits turned 65 in 1976. Cohorts retiring after this period were also the beneficiaries of the expansion of private occupational pensions that took place between the 1950s and the 1970s. The author relies on a detailed decomposition of income by source to show that not only did the maturation of these earnings-related programs produce a substantial increase in average real incomes but also to a substantial reduction in income inequality among the elderly, due mainly to C/QPP benefits. Rising real incomes went disproportionately to lower income seniors contributing to the well-known decline in low-income rates among the elderly.

    Release date: 2000-03-06

  • Surveys and statistical programs – Documentation: 75F0002M1999009
    Description:

    This paper describes the issues around updating the low income cut-offs as well as Statistics Canada's findings and proposes a course of action.

    Release date: 2000-01-12
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  • Articles and reports: 11F0019M2000160
    Geography: Canada
    Description:

    In this paper, we use census tract data to analyse changes in neighbourhood income inequality and residential economic segregation in the eight largest Canadian cities during the 1980-95 period. Is the income gap between richer and poorer neighbourhoods rising? Are high and low-income families increasingly clustered in economically homogeneous neighbourhoods? The main results are an elaboration of the spatial implications of the well documented changes that have occurred in family income and earnings inequality since 1980. We find that between neighbourhood family income (post-transfer/pre-tax) inequality rose in all cities driven by a substantial rise in neighbourhood (employment) earnings inequality. Real average earnings fell, sometimes dramatically, in low-income neighbourhoods in virtually all cities while rising moderately in higher income neighbourhoods. Strikingly, social transfers, which were the main factor stabilizing national level income inequality in the face of rising earnings inequality, had only a modest impact on changes in neighbourhood inequality. Changes in the neighbourhood distribution of earnings signal significant change in the social and economic character of many neighbourhoods. Employment was increasingly concentrated in higher income communities and unemployment in lower income neighbourhoods. Finally, we ask whether neighbourhood inequality rose primarily as a result of rising family income inequality in the city as a whole or because families were increasingly sorting themselves into "like" neighbourhoods so that neighbourhoods were becoming more economically homogeneous (economic "segregation"). We find that economic spatial segregation increased in all cities and was the major factor behind rising neighbourhood inequality in four of the eight cities. A general rise in urban family income inequality was the main factor in the remaining four cities.

    Release date: 2000-12-13

  • Articles and reports: 11F0019M2000140
    Geography: Canada
    Description:

    The correlation of occupational gender composition and wages is the basis of pay equity/comparable worth legislation. A number of previous studies have examined this correlation in US data, identifying some of the determinants of low wages in "female jobs", as well as important limitations of public policy in this area. There is little evidence, however, from other jurisdictions. This omission is particularly disturbing in the case of Canada, which now has some of the most extensive pay equity legislation in the world. In this paper, we provide a comprehensive picture, circa the late 1980's, of the occupational gender segregation in Canada and its consequences for wages. We also draw explicit comparisons of our findings to evidence for the United States. We find that the link between female wages and gender composition is much stronger in the United States than in Canada, where it is generally small and not statistically significant. The relatively more advantageous position of women in female jobs in Canada is found to be linked to higher unionization rates and the industry-wage effects of "public goods" sectors.

    Release date: 2000-09-05

  • Articles and reports: 11F0019M2000146
    Geography: Canada
    Description:

    In this paper, we investigate the extent to which Canadians were exposed to low income during the 1993-1996 period. Our main findings are the following. First, while 1 in 10 Canadians live in families with low income in a given year, as many as 1 in 5 are exposed to at least one year of low income during a 4-year interval. Second, 1 in 20 Canadians are exposed to low income for 4 consecutive years. Third, 40% to 60% of individuals who fall into low income in a given year will no longer have low income the following year. Fourth, some spells of low income last a long time: of all spells started in 1994, 30% lasted 3 years or more. Fifth, Canadians who are the most susceptible to low income tend to be young; to have little education; to be students and to live as unattached individuals or in lone-parent families. As well, Canadians facing disabilities that entail work limitations, those who are members of visible minorities (when considering the exposure to 4 years of low income) or who have immigrated in or after 1977 tend to experience low income. Sixth, high probabilities of being exposed to low income do not necessarily imply high income gaps, that is, the average income of those in low income may be quite close to the low income cut-off. As a result, a complete understanding of the extent to which Canadians are exposed to low income requires an analysis of both the probabilities of being exposed and the income gaps while being exposed.

    Release date: 2000-05-19

  • Articles and reports: 11F0019M2000148
    Geography: Canada
    Description:

    There is a general sense that the 1990s labour market was unique. It has been characterized by notions such as "downsizing", "technological revolution", "the knowledge-based economy", "rising job instability", and so on. This paper provides an extensive overview of the performance of the 1990s labour market, and asks just how different it was from the 1980s. It goes on to ask if the facts are consistent with many common beliefs and explanations. The paper focuses on (a) macro-level labour market outcomes, and (b) distributional outcomes. Macro-level topics include: has the nature of work changed dramatically in the 1990s? has there been a continued ratcheting up of unemployment? have we witnessed rising job instability and increased levels of layoffs? did company downsizing increase in the 1990s? why did per capita income growth stall in the 1990s? for a worker with a given level of human capital, has there been a deterioration in labour market outcomes?

    Much of the focus in the labour market over the 1980s and 1990s was on distributional outcomes - who is winning and who is losing. Some of the distributional outcomes of the 1990s labour market addressed in the paper include: outcomes for men and women; changes in the relative wages of the highly educated and earnings inequality; trends in the rate of low-income; the changing outcomes for recent labour market entrants, including young people and immigrants; and the extent to which technological change plays a major role in these outcomes.

    The paper concludes with a discussion of the overall performance of the 1990s labour market as compared to the 1980s.

    Release date: 2000-05-04

  • Articles and reports: 82-003-X19990034936
    Geography: Canada
    Description:

    Canadian provinces and metropolitan areas had generally lower income inequality and lower mortality than their US counterparts.

    Within Canada there was no association between income inequality and mortality at either the provincial or metropolitan area levels. However, this relationship is strong in the United States.

    This Canada-United States comparison suggests that the Canadian urban environment may be more beneficial to health than its US counterpart.

    Release date: 2000-03-31

  • Articles and reports: 11F0019M2000144
    Geography: Canada
    Description:

    In this paper, we revisit trends in low-income among Canadian children by taking advantage of recent developments in the measurement of low-income intensity. We focus in particular on the Sen-Shorrocks-Thon (SST) index and its elaboration by Osberg and Xu. Low-income intensity declined in the 1980s but rose in the 1990s. Declining earnings put upward pressure on low-income levels over much of the period. Higher transfers more than offset this pressure in the 1980s and continued to absorb a substantial share of the increase through 1993. In contrast, the rise in low-income intensity after 1993 reflected reductions in UI and social assistance benefits that were not offset by increased employment earnings, at least to 1996 the latest year used in this paper.

    A major aim of the paper is methodological. We contrast results using the SST index with results produced by the more familiar low-income rate, the usual measure for indexing low-income trends. The low-income rate is embedded in the SST index, but unlike the index, the rate incorporates only partial information on the distribution of low-income. Consequently, the low-income rate is generally unable to detect the changes we describe and this is true irrespective of the choice of low-income cut-off. Compared to the low-income intensity measure, the rate is also relatively insensitive to changes in transfer payments and employment earnings.

    Release date: 2000-03-30

  • Articles and reports: 11F0019M2000147
    Geography: Canada
    Description:

    This paper revisits trends in the level and distribution of income among Canadian seniors in the context of what is arguably the major source of change in these trends since the end of the seventies, the maturation of Canada's public and private earnings-related pension systems. The expanded role of earnings-related pensions in the 1980s and 1990s is largely the result of changes that occurred in the 1950s and 1960s. The Canada and Quebec Pension Plans (C/QPP) were implemented in 1966 and the first cohort to receive full C/QPP benefits turned 65 in 1976. Cohorts retiring after this period were also the beneficiaries of the expansion of private occupational pensions that took place between the 1950s and the 1970s. The author relies on a detailed decomposition of income by source to show that not only did the maturation of these earnings-related programs produce a substantial increase in average real incomes but also to a substantial reduction in income inequality among the elderly, due mainly to C/QPP benefits. Rising real incomes went disproportionately to lower income seniors contributing to the well-known decline in low-income rates among the elderly.

    Release date: 2000-03-06
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