Income Disparities: The Case of Unskilled Workers in Canada (1996-2010) - Theoretical Economics Letters

TEL > Vol.5 No.1, February 2015

Income Disparities: The Case of Unskilled Workers in Canada (1996-2010) ()

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DOI: 10.4236/tel.2015.51011 3,200 Downloads 4,037 Views Citations

Author(s)

Samir Amine^1*, Phillippe Scrimger²

Affiliation(s)

¹Université du Québec en Outaouais, Centre de recherche en politiques publiques (CIRANO), Gatineau, Canada.
²Ecole de relations industrielles, Université de Montréal, Montréal, Canada.

ABSTRACT

In this paper we analyse the gaps in economic welfare that exist between skilled and unskilled labor in Canada. Following the work of Chardon [1] [2] and Amossé and Chardon [3], we use compe- tency levels as defined in the National Classification of Occupations to distinguish these two groups and then analyse the income disparities that exist between them. Our main findings show that unskilled workers are worse off economically than their skilled counterparts and that the Canadian workforce seems to be more bipolarized than the Canadian population as a whole. We also find strong intra-categorical inequalities within unskilled labor, workers from the sales and services occupational domain being at a disadvantage relative to their peers in other occupational groups. Finally, we show that state intervention, through taxation and social transfers, plays an important role in tightening the inter-categorical and intra-categorical income gaps.

KEYWORDS

Income Gaps, Intra-Categorical, Public Redistribution

Share and Cite:

Amine, S. and Scrimger, P. (2015) Income Disparities: The Case of Unskilled Workers in Canada (1996-2010). Theoretical Economics Letters, 5, 74-81. doi: 10.4236/tel.2015.51011.

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