Income and nonwage benefits from employment

1
Income and non-wage benefits from employment

• Task Force on Measurement of Quality of
  Employment
• Paris, June 12 and 13

2
It may be obvious but

• A survey of 2,500 Canadians1
• 6 in 10 said good pay was very important in a
  job
• Over half said benefits were very important
• Pay and benefits among most significant job
  quality deficits
• 1 Changing Employment Relationships Survey,
  Canadian Policy Research Networks

3
Income from employment indicators

• Evaluated
• Share of employed working below ½ median hourly
  earnings
• Share of employees paid at or below the minimum
  wage
• Proposed
• Average wages
• Distribution of wages by quintile

4
Results of indicator evaluation

• Share of employed working below ½ median hourly
  earnings
• Useful
• Strength in providing simple relative measure
• Too simple? Should there be an age cut-off?
  Should household-level be considered?

5
Results of indicator evaluation

• Share of employees paid at or below minimum wage
• Useful, simple measure
• Too simple? Should there be an age cut-off?
• In some Canadian jurisdictions, minimum wages set
  very, very low, so very few people in this
  indicator (0.7 in Alberta)
• Duplicative?

6
Share earning minimum wage or less
7
Results of indicator evaluation

• Average wages of employees
• Felt that there was a need to go beyond relative
  measurement what are people actually making?
• Should household-level be considered?
• How to make international or inter-regional
  comparisons, given regional living cost
  differences?

8
Average wage growth relative to prices
9
Results of indicator evaluation

• Distribution of wages by quintile
• Felt that there was a need for more sophisticated
  measurement or relative earnings
• Comparing top quintile to bottom would allow wage
  polarization analysis
• Too complicated?

10
Fastest wage growth among the best paid 1/5 of
employees
11
Non-wage benefits from employment indicators

• Evaluated
• Share of employees entitled to paid annual leave
• Average length of paid annual leave
• Proposed
• Share of employees receiving supplemental medical
  insurance

12
Results of indicator evaluation

• Share of employees entitled to paid annual leave
• Perhaps the most important non-wage benefit, so
  very relevant
• Entitlement data needs to be combined with
  estimates based on actual behaviour (next
  indicator)

13
Results of indicator evaluation

• Average length of paid annual leave
• Perhaps the most important non-wage benefit, so
  very relevant
• Supplement to entitlement data

14
Entitlement and use of annual paid leave
15
Income and non-wage benefits from employment
What do you think??