income and non-wage benefits from employment task force on measurement of quality of employment...

Income and non-wage benefits from employment

Task Force on Measurement of Quality of Employment

Paris, June 12 and 13

It may be obvious but…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

Income from employment Income from employment indicators:indicators:Evaluated:1. Share of employed working below ½ median hourly earnings2. Share of employees paid at or below the minimum wage

Proposed:1. Average wages2. Distribution of wages by quintile

Results of indicator evaluationResults 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?

Results of indicator evaluationResults of indicator evaluationShare 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?

Share earning minimum wage Share earning minimum wage or lessor less

0

0.5

1

1.5

2

2.5

3

1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007

CanadaAlberta

Results of indicator evaluationResults 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?

Average wage growth relative Average wage growth relative to pricesto prices

90

95

100

105

110

115

120Ju

n-02

Oct

-02

Feb

-03

Jun-

03

Oct

-03

Feb

-04

Jun-

04

Oct

-04

Feb

-05

Jun-

05

Oct

-05

Feb

-06

Jun-

06

Oct

-06

Feb

-07

Jun-

07

Oct

-07

Feb

-08

PricesWeekly wages

Weekly wages, prices June 2002=100

Results of indicator evaluationResults 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?

Fastest wage growth among Fastest wage growth among the best paid 1/5 of employeesthe best paid 1/5 of employees

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

1st quintile 2nd quintile 3rd quintile 4th quintile 5th quintile

Real wage growth (%),1997 to 2007

Non-wage benefits from Non-wage benefits from employment indicators:employment indicators:Evaluated:1. Share of employees entitled to paid annual leave2. Average length of paid annual leave

Proposed:1. Share of employees receiving supplemental medical insurance

Results of indicator evaluationResults 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)

Results of indicator evaluationResults of indicator evaluation

Average length of paid annual leave

Perhaps the most important “non-wage benefit”, so very relevant

Supplement to entitlement data

Entitlement and use of annual Entitlement and use of annual paid leavepaid leave

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

% of employees entitled to paidannual leave

% of employees taking paidannual leave

Average number of days of paidannual leave entitlement

Average number of days of paidannual leave taken

2001

2003

2005

Income and non-wage benefits from employment

What do you think??