SOCI 2510 Chapter Notes - Chapter 11: Child Tax Credit, Blue-Collar Worker, Social Stratification
10 Sep 2018
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Social Class in Canada
● Canadian society is highly stratified.
DIMENSIONS OF SOCIAL INEQUALITY
● Canada's egalitarian values suggest that we experience equality of opportunity and
widespread upward mobility.
● Birth confers advantages and opportunities on some people that others who are less fortunate
could never imagine.
● Social inequality in Canada is not easily recognized because our primary groups typically
have the same social standing as we do.
● Socio-economic status amounts to a composite measure of social position that encompasses
not only money but also power, occupational prestige, and schooling.
INCOME
● Income is the occupational wages or salaries, earnings from investments, and government
transfer payments.
● Average family income in Canada rose substantially between 1985 and 2009.
● Two parent, two earner families had substantially higher incomes than do average families,
and the rise after 1996 was even sharper for them.
○ An important contributor to rising income for the average family was the increase in
dual income families that began in the 1960s and 1970s.
○ The sharper rise in the 1996 to 2009 period can be explained by the movement of
women in two earner families into better paid and often professional jobs.
■ The effect was the transformation of dual income families into dual career
families.
● Pre income tax in female lone parent families is roughly half that of the average family.
○ The sharper increase in after tax income in female lone parent families between 1996
and 2009 is the result of an increase in the child tax credit.
● In 2001, the 20 percent of families with the highest earnings received 43.6 percent of all
income. The lowest income quintile received only 5.2 percent.
● We have failed to redistribute income to those who are less well off.
● Between 1991 and 2001, the top quintile gained income at the expense of the poorest quintile.
Over the past decade in Canada, the poor got richer while the rich got poorer.
● Canada's income is more equally distributed than that of the United States.
○ But, within each country, levels of inequality are remarkably stable over time.
● Average income is lowest in Newfoundland and Nunavut, and highest in Yukon and Alberta.
Only Ontario, Yukon, Alberta, and the Northwest Territories have incomes higher than the
Canadian average.
○ The higher incomes of Yukon and the Northwest Territories can be attributed to high
levels of government employment, to professionals who work in mining, and to
isolation pay.
○ Some regions are far wealthier than others.
WEALTH
● Wealth is the total amount of money and other assets, minus outstanding debts.
○ Wealth in the form of stocks, bonds, real estate, and other privately owned property is
distributed even less evenly than income.
● Canada does not measure or tax wealth, but the United States does.
● In America, the richest 20 percent of families earn 48 percent of all income and own an
astounding 85 percent of all wealth.
POWER
● Wealth stands as an important source of power.
○ Major owners of corporate stock make decisions that create jobs for ordinary people
or scale back operations.
○ The super rich families who own most of the nation's wealth have a great deal of
influence over the national political agenda.
● Some analysts maintain that, while the rich may have some advantages, they do not dominate
the political process.
● Marx argued that the political system represents the interests of the wealthy.
OCCUPATIONAL PRESTIGE
● Occupation is a major determinant of income, wealth, and power. It serves as a key source of
social prestige.
● Physicians, lawyers, and engineers are ranked near the top on prestige, while cashiers and
janitors are ranked near the bottom.
○ In global perspective, occupational prestige rankings tend to be roughly the same in
all industrial, high income societies.
● Almost everywhere, white collar work that involves mental activity free from extensive
supervision confers greater prestige than do blue collar occupations that require supervised,
manual labor.
● In most of the occupational categories, women earn about 60 percent of male income. Self-
employed women fare best, earning about 88 percent.
● By 2000, many more occupations were ranked in the middle ranges.
● Throughout the 1975 to 2000 period, many low- to moderate-prestige jobs came to require
added skills because of computers. At the upper end of the scale, computers had a different
effect.
● In 1975, there was a tendency to assign different rankings to male accountants and female
accountants. By 2000, that gender gap had disappeared.
SCHOOLING
● Education is highly valued in industrial societies.
● In Canada, women did not pursue formal education for as long as their male counterparts; in
recent years, the majority of bachelor's and master's degrees have been earned by women,
although they have not caught up with men in doctoral degrees.
● Individuals with higher levels of schooling are more likely to be in the labor force, to be
employed rather than unemployed, and to earn higher incomes.
○ Income almost doubles with higher levels of educational attainment.
CANADIAN STRATIFICATION: MERIT AND CASTE
ANCESTRY
● Ancestry determines our point of entry into the system of social inequality.
● Being born to privilege or poverty sets the stage for future schooling, occupation, and income.
● Many of the richest individuals are likely to have derived their fortunes primarily through
inheritance.
● The family transmits property, power, prestige, and possibilities from one generation to the
next, contributing to the persistence of social stratification.
RACE AND ETHNICITY
● Among those who are employed full-time, all year, Canadians of Japanese origin have
substantially higher average employment income than those of English and French origin.
● French and Chinese employment incomes are very similar and higher than those of people
who identify as Quebecois, Black or Aboriginal.
● Race and discrimination are not the sole determinants of income inequality.
● While income is only one dimension of social class, race and ethnicity are clearly associated
with differential placement in the socio-economic hierarchy of Canada.
GENDER
● Women born into families of high social standing draw on many more social resources than
men born into disadvantaged families.
● On average, women earn lower income, accumulate less wealth, enjoy lower occupational
prestige, and are less likely to have advanced degrees in math, science, and engineering.
● Women do not inherit the social prestige of their fathers to the extent that men do.
● Households headed by women are many more times likely to be poor than are those headed
by men.
SOCIAL CLASSES IN CANADA
● Defining classes in Canada is difficult owing to the relatively low level of status consistency.
● The social mobility typical of class systems means that social position often changes during
one's lifetime, further blurring the lines between social classes.
● Computer literacy is increasingly distinguishing the highly employable from those who face
multiple barrier to satisfactory employment.
THE UPPER CLASS
● The upper class, perhaps 3 to 5 percent of the Canadian population, derives much of its
income from inherited wealth, in the form of stocks and bonds, real estate, and other
investments.
● The upper class comprises capitalists, those who own or controls most of the nation's
productive property.
● Many members of the upper class work as top executives in large corporations, often earning
annual salaries in the millions.
Document Summary
Canada"s egalitarian values suggest that we experience equality of opportunity and widespread upward mobility. Birth confers advantages and opportunities on some people that others who are less fortunate could never imagine. Social inequality in canada is not easily recognized because our primary groups typically have the same social standing as we do. Socio-economic status amounts to a composite measure of social position that encompasses not only money but also power, occupational prestige, and schooling. Income is the occupational wages or salaries, earnings from investments, and government transfer payments. Average family income in canada rose substantially between 1985 and 2009. Two parent, two earner families had substantially higher incomes than do average families, and the rise after 1996 was even sharper for them. An important contributor to rising income for the average family was the increase in dual income families that began in the 1960s and 1970s.
