Canadian women hardest hit by the pandemic recession, expert says

Researchers say the COVID-19 pandemic disproportionately impacted women and marginalized workers, particularly in the service sector and care economy.

The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives tracked the labour market experiences of women workers for the last three years – with a particular focus on hard-hit industries and Canada’s care economy.

Katherine Scott, lead researcher of the project, says the research has pulled together findings about the scale of the crisis.

She says the recession caused by the pandemic is unlike anything the world has seen before because previous recessions in the 80s, 90s, and 2008 impacted male-dominated export industries, which led to higher rates of male unemployment.

“The pandemic recession was all about the service sector in particular, women and marginalized workers working on the front lines in exposed occupations, whether it was grocery store clerks or in retail obviously, frontline workers in the care economy who went to work every day,” Scott said.

“Hair salons and food and accommodation, restaurant workers, those folks who are hugely exposed and had massive economic losses. They were the women who are working in our care economy.”

Scott says the research also indicates that women who did pivot from the service sector into higher-paying industries like law or accounting did not make the same economic gains that men in those industries did — the gender wage gap actually widened.

“Any of the women who got new work in these industries, were being channeled into lower-paid occupations, and you have men in that industry, making massive wage gains,” she said.

“The number of women working in those sectors increased but the wage gap still widened because men were making higher wage gains.”

The researcher says the pandemic was ‘fantastic’ for illuminating how our labour market works, and who is disadvantaged and privileged.

“Let’s be clear, the millions of (women) workers who are locked in tough situations, don’t enjoy the same levels of benefits, protections, and the like, and there’s a huge agenda that still exists that we need to let you know really get me to get moving with which includes strengthening Employment Standards,” she said.

-With files from Michelle Meiklejohn