Last October, Ontario’s pay equity office reported Canadian women received an average of 18 per cent less retirement income than men in 2020, which is three per cent higher than the gap observed in 1976, the earliest year for which data is available. How has progress moved backwards in the past 44 years, even though women are […]
In the face of a tight labour market and fierce competition for top talent, employee mental-health and well-being supports are emerging as key components of employers’ attraction and retention strategies. Speaking during a panel session at Benefits Canada‘s 2022 Healthy Outcomes Conference, Zayna Khayat (left), vice-president of growth and client success at Teladoc Health, said […]
Kristy Dickinson woke up on a recent Monday unable to move her body. The delay waiting for medication and a heating pad to kick in threw off her morning routine and a flare-up of gastrointestinal symptoms forced her to reschedule back-to-back work meetings. She wasn’t able to get her work done until later in the […]
Thomson Reuters Corp. is providing employees with additional flexibility and paid leave to further support well-being and work-life balance. The media company is allowing employees to work from anywhere within their country of residence for up to eight weeks. In addition, employees can now take up to 10 paid days of caregiver leave, while bereavement […]
Many employees are engaged in a challenging “juggling act,” with about one in four Canadians aged 15 and older providing ongoing care to a family member or friend and about one in five caregivers spending 20 or more hours a week in that role, according to Sherry Hnatyshyn, managing director of Carepath. During a Benefits […]
Shopify Inc. was awarded for its digital-first employee health and wellness strategy at Benefits Canada‘s 2021 Workplace Benefits Awards on Oct. 14. The technology company won the award in the Coronavirus and Benefits category for an employer with more than 5,000 employees. Although the organization already had a few remote workers, it swiftly transitioned all of its employees […]
With the coronavirus pandemic exposing gaps in sickness and caregiving leave provisions across Canada, the Institute for Research on Public Policy is calling for permanent reforms to provide access to short-term paid and protected leaves for all employees. In the study, co-authors Eric Tucker, a professor at Osgoode Hall Law School, and Leah Vosko, a […]
Nola Miller remembers the day she received 19 calls from her mother at work. As a group home co-ordinator for Winnipeg Child and Family Services, she’d mastered the demands of her job, but the stress of caring for her aging mother was weighing on her. “When you’re at work, and you’re getting calls like that, […]
In 2018, 25 per cent of Canadians, or 7.8 million people, aged 15 and older provided care to a family member or friend with a long-term health condition, a physical or mental disability or problems related to aging, according to data published this week by Statistics Canada. This compares to 8.1 million people, or 28 […]
An evaluation of a federal benefit to help parents take time off work to care for critically ill children says fewer people have used it than expected because they didn’t know about it or didn’t understand how it worked. Annual applications for the benefit, delivered through the employment insurance system, have been well below the […]