Shelly Phipps
Seminar Description
Shelly Phipps discusses how the change from Unemployment Insurance (UI) to Employment Insurance (EI) effects women's potential access to maternity/parental benefits in Canada. Prior to 1997, applicants for maternity benefits required 20 weeks of paid employment with either 15 hours per week or earnings of $120 per week. With the change to EI, applicants now require 700 hours of paid employment. Shelly uses the 1988/89/90 Labour Market Activities Survey Panel to determine how the new eligibility rules would have affected women having children in those years. She finds that there would have no major changes in overall access to maternity/parental benefits but that there are interesting variations depending on a woman's circumstance. For example, she finds fewer younger (less than 25) and older women (more than 35) would have had access to the benefits.