Employmentweb_low

labour Markets and welfare states: a country perspective
are more readily available to already highly educated Canadian
adults than to adults with low initial education and skills (myers & De
Broucker, 2006). The study found that a significant segment of the
Canadian adult population is unable to participate in the new
knowledge-based society with its orientation towards projects and
short-term employment. for example, the authors note that 5.8
million Canadians aged 25 years and over lack a high school
education or higher credentials; a high drop-out rate from high
school - 200,000 young people, particularly young men - fail to finish
high school in several provinces; and 9 million Canadians between
16 and 65 years of age do not have literacy skills deemed necessary
to live and work in the knowledge-based economy.
among countries in the oECD, Canada has the highest
percentage of low-pay jobs. In the mid-1990s, approximately one in
four full-time workers in Canada, or 23.7 per cent, was low paid. low
pay is defined as earning less than two-thirds of the median national
full-time wage.
These developments have material implications for the lowest
income groups in the Canadian population in terms of their health
status and well-being. research has established this important
relationship (auger, raynault, lessard, & Choinière, 2004; pantazis,
gordon, & levitas, 2006; Wilkins, Berthelot, & ng, 2002)
united states - Katherine Chung-Bridges and lora E. fleming
The united states belongs to the cluster of core liberal countries
with a more unequal social structure. Traditionally, market forces,
rather than state regulation, determine the allocation of labour
resources. although historically income distribution has varied
somewhat, in recent decades the trend has been toward higher
income inequality. By one measure of income inequality, the gini
Index, its level was rising in the united states from the 1960s to the
1990s, where it then levelled off (moss, 2000). from 1995-2005, the
gini Index then further increased by 4 per cent, indicating another
rise in income inequality (Denavas-Walt, proctor, & lee, 2006).
furthermore, in the united states the top 1 per cent of the
population accounts for 40 per cent of the nation's wealth (moss,
2000). The reasons for this include the role of unions, the minimum
wage, and how race and gender affect income.
In a continuing downward trend over the past three decades, only 13 per
cent of workers were unionised in 2005 (us Department of labor, 2006a).
african americans, men, and public sector workers were more likely to be
union members (us Department of labor, 2006a). In 2005, union workers'
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