The New Working Class
When you think of the working class, what image comes to mind?
For most people, the term “working class” conjures the image of a man working on the assembly line in a factory setting. While still applicable, a more accurate image would be a female personal support worker caring for seniors in a long term care home.
According to nonpartisan think tank Cardus, there’s been a major shift in the type of jobs held by working-class Canadians. In a paper titled “Canada’s New Working Class,” Cardus discovered that nearly half of the working-class population in Canada works in retail and service jobs such as food counter attendant or personal support worker.
The new working class is “more personified by a Walmart cashier or an Amazon delivery driver than a General Motors factory worker or a Domtar mill hand,” the paper states. “Those who constitute it have shifted from ‘making stuff’ to ‘serving and caring for people.’”
The paper also found that women are more likely than male workers (35 versus 33 percent) to be in a working-class job. Additionally, these workers are more likely to be an immigrant or racial minority, are more likely to be in a service-sector job than a traditional blue-collar job, and frequently have more educational experience or credentials than typically required for their jobs. Fifty-three percent of working-class Canadians have postsecondary certificates, diplomas, or degrees—a fact Cardus attributes to various factors such as individual preferences, foreign credential issues, a skills mismatch, or even employer discrimination.
This shift is significant, the paper surmises, because the interests and concerns of a female healthcare worker differ greatly from those of a male factory worker. Politicians and policy makers will need to shift their understanding of the modern working class to better serve this population and the issues that affect them, such as health and dental benefits, labour standards, housing, childcare, and immigration.
Source: Cardus