Employment Facts
Employment Insurance                                    
January 2007 - Download Factsheet (PDF, 41KB)

Unemployed women tend to have less access to EI in comparison to men.[1]

• Women’s access to EI benefits decreased 6% in the five years following the introduction of the EI Act in 1996; in comparison, men’s access decreased 1%.[2]
  
  
• 2005 saw an 8.3% access rate difference between the genders, with 89.6% of unemployed men and 82.3% of unemployed women qualifying for EI.[3]
  
  
• Less than half (42.8%) of unemployed part-timer workers qualified for EI in 2004.[4] Women account for about 7 out of 10 part-time employees.[5]

EI Restrictions Often Affect Women with Dependent Children

• The population least likely to qualify for EI is also the group most likely to have young children – women aged 25-44 years.[6] Almost three quarters of employed women have children under the age of 16.[7]
  
  
• Single mothers make up about one-third of NERES, new workers or people returning to the workforce after a two-year or more absence.[8] NEREs are much less likely than other workers to qualify for benefits.[9] With the EI Act, men who are fathers and are NEREs are more likely to qualify than in the past; however, women who are NEREs and mothers, especially single-mothers, are less likely to qualify.[10]

Gender Differences in Forms of EI Received

• Men are much more likely than women to receive regular EI benefits: 84% of men receiving EI are accessing regular benefits, in comparison with 50% of women recipients.[11]
  
  
• While women are less likely than men to be unemployed,[12] in recent years a larger proportion of EI claims are going to women (53%).[13] This trend has been attributed to women's access of maternity or parental benefits.[14] Forty percent of women claiming EI are on maternity or parental leaves, while only 2% of men access parental benefits.[15]
  
  
• Fourteen percent of all women eligible for EI also qualify for the Family Supplement claim, in comparison with 4% of men.[16] The Family Supplement tops-up EI payments to unemployed parents with net family incomes of $25,921 or less.[17] Two thirds of all Family Supplement recipients are women.[18]

Difficulties Accessing Maternity and Parental Benefits

• In 2004, more than one of three women with newborns did not qualify for maternity or parental benefits.[19] Most women who do not qualify were self-employed, or had not worked for two years or more.[20]
  
  
• Claimants of maternity or parental benefits must work 600 hours in the previous 52 weeks.[21] Because women are more likely to work part-time, they are less likely than men to qualify for parental benefits.[22]
  
  
• In 2003, more than one woman in ten was self-employed.[23] With the exception of Quebec, self-employed workers do not qualify for maternity or parental benefits. Quebec offers a plan to self-employed women who are required to contribute to the Quebec Parental Insurance Plan (QPIP).[24]

EI Benefits are Not Adequate for Women’s Circumstances

• In 2004, almost one-third of regular EI beneficiaries exhausted their entitlement to EI benefits.[25] Women tend to exhaust EI benefits in higher proportions than men because they are more likely to work part-time and therefore receive fewer weeks of benefits.[26]
  
  
• On average, a woman makes 72 cents for every dollar a man makes.[27] Because wages determine the weekly financial benefits that EI claimants can receive, women on average receive less support than men.[28]
  
  
• Canada ranked sixth out of ten developing countries for maternity and parental benefits for new mothers who work part-time on average wages.[29]