Unions and hazard pay for COVID-19: Evidence from the Canadian Labour Force Survey.

ABSTRACT: In this article, we examine whether (and by how much) workers in Canada have been compensated for the 'novel' risks associated with COVID-19. We create a unique dataset from a system that scores occupations in the US O*NET database for COVID-19 exposure. We then combine those COVID exposure scores with Canadian occupational data contained in the Public Use Microdata File of the Labour Force Survey. This allows us to categorize Canadian occupations based on COVID-19 exposure risk. We find a long-tailed distribution of COVID-19 risk scores across occupations, with most jobs at the lower end of the risk spectrum and relatively few occupations accounting for most of the high COVID-19 exposure risk. We find that workers who are already more vulnerable in the labour market (i.e. youth, women and

SUBMITTER: Lamb D 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8652733 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature