Insecurity and Inequality in the Workplace

The purpose of this essay is to provide the differences that encompass insecurity and inequality, to describe the experiences of the most affect social groups, as well as answer the question if work has become more unequal in Canada. I will also touch on the major theoretical explanations for inequalities and indicate which explanation is most persuasive. My last point will be in identifying government and employer policies that are most effective in reducing inequalities and insecurities.

Inequality refers to the different statuses, experiences, and outcomes among different groupings of individuals in Canadian society. Inequality is about who gets what, how they get it, and why they get it. Social inequality is usually tied to race, gender, and class, those with higher education levels, and those with higher income levels sitting at the top of the hierarchy. In other words, social inequality is characterized by the existence of unequal opportunities and rewards for different social positions or statuses within a group or society. It contains structured and continuing patterns of unequal distributions of goods, wealth, opportunities, rewards, and punishments.

Insecurity refers to “the lack of dependable income and work and to the presence of dangerous and difficult working conditions”. For job insecurity, higher chances of unemployment and irregular career earning patters are a fact of life in secondary labour markets.

The difference between inequality and insecurity is shown as the following aspects: first, their definitions are different. Second, the factors influencing and determining inequality and insecurity are different. Work insecurity mainly relies on work background, job importance, job characteristics, and job content, working conditions, space of capacity building, job satisfaction, and career development; while work inequality is affected by some non-personal characteristics.

Inequality and...