The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
In Canada, about 15 per cent of the labour force is classified as Òself-employed.Ó ItÕs popular to think that, unlike mere employees, these people are independent ÒcapitalistsÓ who are gladly building their small businesses. But research shows the truth can be quite different. Compared to paid employees, self-employed people work longer hours, have little access to crucial social benefits; can be left destitute if they get injured, lose jobs, or retire; and have no legal right to join a union. Many crave a paid job. Long ago, industrial societies decided that employees needed state protection above what employers would offer voluntarily. Why do we not offer similar protections to our self-employed? Part of it has to do with the mental distinction we continue to make between entrepreneurs (who, we assume, can fend for themselves) and employees (who need our protection). In fact, if we think self-employment is a good thing, then the dependent self-employed need our protection precisely to better fend for themselves. A first step would be to make the self-employed just as eligible for social benefits, like employment insurance, workersÕ compensation and public pensions, as their employed counterparts. Quebec already has such programs. A few of these benefits are accessible in other Canadian provinces, but the self-employed are punished with double the premiums that employees pay. Legislation outlawing discrimination based on employment status would help greatly. Another initiative would legally protect the choice of the self-employed to join in associations for collective bargaining purposes and legally oblige groups of purchasers of their goods or services to negotiate a fee schedule with them. Such bargaining is not uncommon on a voluntary basis, as physicians regularly negotiate fee schedules with governments. A final suggestion would turn the traditional way we look at social protection on its head. Most of our social benefits take the form of insurance against risk of catastrophic loss of income from employment. But standard employment is fast becoming a notion of the past. The concept of social drawing rights, now being z seriously in the European Union, would take part of the surplus wealth generated through work and distribute it based not upon the myriad hierarchical divisions of employment, but simply on oneÕs status as a human being living in a country. This is an edited version of an editorial by Larry Haiven, Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.
