Transcript Poverty and Affluence in Canada

Poverty and Affluence in
Canada
Income Inequality
Income Inequality
• From 1920 – 1970 the gap between the
richest quintile, or 5th of the population, and
the poorest quintile narrowed
• Most politicians believed that income
inequality existed in all societies, and
therefore it must be an inherent part of
human structures.
Inequality as a societal
characteristic?
• However, during the 1970s the economy
changed drastically. International oil prices
quadrupled, resulting in increased
production costs for all sectors of the
economy
• This led to a severe worldwide recession.
Defining Poverty
• Stats Canada establishes every year what it
calls the “low-income cut-off line”
• On average, Canadians spend 36% of their
after-tax incomes on basic necessities such as
food, shelter, and clothing.
• Stats Canada adds 20% of this figure, so that
any family spending more than 56% of its total
income on these necessities is below the LICO,
what the media usually refers to as “the poverty
line”
Welfare in Ontario
• Ontario Government reduced the level of
welfare payments by 21.6% in 1995, believing
that payments were too high and that they
created a disincentive; that is, they discouraged
some recipients from finding employment
• This means, the government believed that the
functional repercussion, or logical outcome, of
the high payments was that people receiving
welfare benefits didn`t feel a need to look for
work.
– What are your thoughts
The Wage Gap Between Men &
Women
• Women as a group have statistically and
historically earned less than men.
• This becomes relevant when considering
the number of single-earner families
headed by women with low incomes.
• In 1998 for example, unattached employed
women earned on average $31,388 while
men earned $47,077
The Differences
• Stats Canada studied the wage gap and
concluded that half the difference can be
accounted for by differences in the following
areas:
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
Work experience
Education
Major field of study
Occupation
Industry of employment
Supervisory responsibilities
Seniority
But what is responsible for the
remaining wage gap