POLICY FORUM WORKING PAPERS

As evidenced in PEPSO's It's More than Poverty and The Precarity Penalty reports, precarious employment is problematic because it impacts individual well-being, family well-being, and the ability of individuals to participate in their communities. Consequently, the solutions that can address the challenges for those in precarious employment go beyond the workplace. They include the resources and supports needed to support workers in their experience of work as well as their experiences as individuals and community members.

It has become increasingly clear that we must find alternative solutions to meet the needs that were previously addressed by a traditional employment relationship. This set of papers is a first step toward finding these solutions. The policy options contained in these papers may be policy changes or practice shifts, and may be proposed or already in use in other jurisdictions. Together these proposals establish a menu of options to address the key challenges for workers in precarious jobs in southern Ontario today.

  Read the Introduction for an overview of PEPSO's methodology and how to interpret this set of working papers. 

  Refer to the Bibliography for a list of sources PEPSO consulted to produce these papers. 

It is important to note that this is not a compendium of recommendations that PEPSO is advocating for, but a range of ideas to be used to develop recommendations. The larger theme of these papers is Key Challenges for those in Precarious Employment. This set of papers is grouped into 4 challenge areas.