Pay at Risk

Compensation and Employment Risk
in the United States and Canada

"The US-Canadian comparisons and up-to-date coverage will make this volume useful to both policy makers and those teaching policy-related courses." Choice Magazine

Introductory chapter | Table of Contents

The economies and labor markets of the United States and Canada share many similarities (although Canada's economy is less than 10 percent as large as the U.S. economy) and exist inexorably linked with one another.

Given this interconnection, one might expect public employment policies in either country to respond similarly to labor market conditions. But is this the case in the area of employment and compensation risk? Are there substantial differences between the U.S. and Canada, e.g., in the areas of unemployment benefits and health insurance, that impact the risk experienced by workers in either country? And is the level of risk experienced by those workers increasing?

The contributors to this book investigate the compensation and employment risks for U.S. and Canadian workers. They examine both wage and nonwage aspects of compensation, and whether workers in the U.S. or Canada face more job-related risks. They also seek to identify trends in risk bearing and whether they differ by country. Included in this volume are

• Wage and Job Risk for Workers, by John A. Turner. Turner examines whether worker risk in hours, wages, and employment has increased in traditional employment relationships in the U.S. and Canada.

• Risk in Employment Arrangements, by Sophie M. Korczyk. Does risk vary by the type of employment arrangement? Evidence produced by Korczyk shows that, relative to the size of the labor force, the growth of the contingent and alternative workforce has been slight. That said, roughly half of the workers in these types of employment relationships would prefer to be in "standard" positions but are unable to find them.

• Health and Coverage At Risk, by Robert B. Friedland, Laura Summer, Sophie M. Korczyk, and Douglas E. Hyatt. The authors discuss changes in worker and retiree health insurance affecting worker risk bearing. Particularly worrisome, they say, is the fact that health insurance for individuals in the U.S. under age 65 is typically provided by their employers, therefore job loss often leads to loss of insurance.
• Risk Sharing Through Social Security Retirement Income Systems, by John A. Turner. The social security systems in the U.S. and Canada are similar in many ways, and both ultimately provide retirement income that is an important part of employment-related risk bearing. But Turner finds distinctions between the two that lead him to pronounce that the Canadian system is generally more progressive, both in terms of financing and benefits.
• Risk Bearing in Individual and Occupational Pension Plans, by James E. Pesando and John A. Turner. The authors of this chapter analyze the trend towards workers bearing more risk in pension benefits in the U.S. and Canada, and the relative amount of risk in the two countries.
• Risk Shifting in Workers' Compensation, by Douglas E. Hyatt. Hyatt discusses changes in workers' compensation and how those changes affect risk bearing.

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