{"id":39169,"date":"2016-05-26T15:12:25","date_gmt":"2016-05-26T19:12:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/?p=39169"},"modified":"2017-03-23T13:08:34","modified_gmt":"2017-03-23T17:08:34","slug":"brock-led-research-finds-disparity-between-canada-quebec-maternity-leave","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/2016\/05\/brock-led-research-finds-disparity-between-canada-quebec-maternity-leave\/","title":{"rendered":"Brock-led research finds disparity between Canada, Quebec maternity leave"},"content":{"rendered":"

Some 38 per cent of all mothers across Canada \u2013 with the exception of Quebec \u2013 are excluded from maternity or parental benefits under the federal Employment Insurance (EI) program, new Brock-led research has found.<\/span><\/p>\n

In contrast, only 10 per cent of mothers in Quebec are excluded from that province\u2019s Quebec Parental Insurance Plan (QPIP), formed in 2006 when Quebec exited the federal EI parental leave program, says the research.<\/p>\n

And, mothers in households earning $30,000 and above receive disproportionately higher access to benefits than lower-income households, especially under the federal EI, according to the research.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur findings quantify the extent to which Canada\u2019s two labour market-based parental leave benefit programs unevenly reproduce and exacerbate class inequality,\u201d says the study, tiled \u201cParental-leave rich and parental-leave poor: Inequality in Canadian labour market based leave policies.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n

The research, led by Lindsey McKay, postdoctoral fellow in The Department of Sociology and a Research Associate with Brock\u2019s Social Justice Research Institute, set out to examine if and how social class \u2013 defined by family income \u2013 determines mothers\u2019 access to maternal or parental leave under the EI and QPIP programs.<\/p>\n

The team \u2013 which includes Brock\u2019s Canada Research Chair in Gender, Work and Care Andrea Doucet and Sophie Mathieu, lecturer at the Universit\u00e9 de Montr\u00e9al \u2013 examined statistics from the national Employment Insurance Coverage Survey, compiled by Statistics Canada.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe point out a divide between Quebec and the rest of Canada, and between households with different incomes, in terms of parental leave benefits in the first year of an infant\u2019s life,\u201d the research team concludes.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe implication is that where parents live in Canada, and how much they earn, matters to whether and how care work is supported.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cQuebec has the most generous parental leave in North America,\u201d says Mathieu. \u201cIn Qu\u00e9bec, a woman who earns minimum wage ($10.75 in 2016) would only need to work 186 hours to qualify to receive QPIP benefits, instead of 600 in the rest of Canada. QPIP thus represents an extension in coverage to persons not covered by the EI.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mathieu, who had her first child in 2008, did not qualify to receive benefits because she was a doctoral student. Her scholarship funding did not count as insurable earnings. However, her partner was entitled to use not only parental leave but also one unique feature of QPIP: up to five weeks of paid paternity leave for fathers. McKay did not qualify in 2011 when she gave birth to twins because she was a student and had a high-risk pregnancy.<\/p>\n

Lead author McKay stresses the importance of maternity and parental leave programs.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a major asset that really helps you have some financial security in the first year of a child\u2019s life,\u201d she says. \u201cFor many families, this is a key buffer against poverty.\u201d<\/p>\n

The research has encouraged parents to share their experiences about being excluded from EI benefits. \u201cMany are students who have to drop their studies and scramble to find work, or more hours at work, to try to reach 600 hours. They return to work soon after the birth only to pay into EI again. One of the worst stories was of excluded parents who were evicted because they couldn\u2019t pay rent.\u201d McKay says.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s stressful enough to have a newborn baby to care for,\u201d she recalls.<\/p>\n

Doucet, who is a Professor of Sociology and Women\u2019s and Gender Studies, says\u00a0the team\u2019s study extends the scope of international parental leave research dominated by research on the exclusion of fathers. \u201cWe now need greater attention to class differences to advance our understanding of exactly who is excluded from this very vital support system for children and their families.\u201d<\/p>\n

The study notes that the annual Employment Insurance Coverage Survey by Statistics Canada used in the study excludes residents of Canada\u2019s three territories and Indigenous people living on First Nations reserves.<\/p>\n

Doucet refers to a recent Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives report<\/a> (CCAP) recommending that poverty statistics \u2013 including data on key policies and programs \u2013 should be published to give a clear picture of how Indigenous children are affected.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we have uncovered is just the tip of the iceberg,\u201d says Doucet. \u201cWe support the CCAP recommendation to extend annual government surveys to reserves and the territories to provide critical poverty and income data \u2013 including access to maternity and parental leave benefits \u2013 for Indigenous mothers and fathers.\u201d<\/p>\n

The team\u2019s research comes at a time when the federal government is reviewing maternity and parental leave provisions. McKay, Mathieu and Doucet\u2019s study shows that proposed changes will have no impact on parents and children in greatest need of support. In fact, they would only widen the rich-poor divide.<\/p>\n

McKay and Doucet are two of four Canadian academics in the International Network on Leave Policies and Research<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cParental-leave rich and parental-leave poor: Inequality in Canadian labour market based leave policies\u201d was published the September, 2016\u00a0Journal of Industrial Relations<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Some 38 per cent of all mothers across Canada \u2013 with the exception of Quebec \u2013 are excluded from maternity or parental benefits under the federal Employment Insurance (EI) program, new Brock-led research has found.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":39170,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3319,4052,1,5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39169"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39169"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39169\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44167,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39169\/revisions\/44167"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39170"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39169"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39169"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39169"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}