Stay later at the office, Ontario has to catch up
The Globe and Mail
By Tavia Grant
Ontario has been struggling under the weight of a high dollar, rising interest rates, and flagging manufacturers. Now there’s a new culprit: the “intensity gap.”
The difference in the measure — defined as hours worked per employed person — between Ontario and the 14 most populous U.S. states has more than doubled over the past 30 years, the study says, mostly because Americans are working longer.
The problem is mainly that part-time workers lack opportunities to work full time, while full-time employees aren’t easily able to put in more hours if they choose, says the study Time on the job: Intensity and Ontario’s prosperity gap, released on the eve of the Labour Day weekend.
Ontarians now work, on average, almost 3½ weeks less a year than their U.S. counterparts. That means more time to play, but also slower economic growth and lost revenue for the provincial government that could go toward social programs or lower taxes.
“In a perfect world, if we could get more productive, we could catch the Americans without having to work harder,” said James Milway, executive director of the Institute for Competitiveness and Prosperity, which published the 42-page report. “But there are some factors that are driving our work effort down we might want to correct.
“We’re not saying people should all cancel your vacations and get back to work,” Mr. Milway said. “But there are certain parts of the population who aren’t working as many hours as they want, and that’s a problem.”
Ontarians are working 21 fewer hours a year than they did 30 years ago, while Americans are putting in 61 more hours, the study says. Ontario’s indolence accounts for $3,700 of the $6,000 per capita prosperity gap between people in the province and their U.S. peers.
Take part-timers, for example, a segment of the population that tends to have fewer skills and less education. About a third would prefer to work full time, the study said, citing Statistics Canada. The best way to get full-time jobs is to upgrade skills and education and stay in school, Mr. Milway said.
It’s a cycle, he added — the more skilled workers Ontario has, the more productivity will increase, thus boosting the economy and creating more high-quality, full-time jobs.
Stricter labour regulations tend to create more involuntary part-time workers, he said. “By making the economy less productive and less robust than it could be, these regulations actually reduce opportunities for part-time workers.”
More Ontario workers have part-time jobs than their U.S. counterparts. As for full-time keeners who are pining to stay at the office longer, red tape should be eased to allow them to do so, the report says.
While workers should have the right to refuse overtime, restrictions on longer hours “can have the disadvantage of being rigid and unresponsive to the need for flexibility in the workplace.”
Ontario workers likely to be most productive — those with higher education and income — are the worst slackers, the report suggested. They take more vacation time and are less likely to work more hours than their U.S. counterparts.
“These Ontarians are less interested in working more hours to augment their prosperity,” the study notes. “The income premium for higher educational attainment is lower in Ontario than in the peer states.”
Policies in Ontario needn’t strictly follow the U.S. model of all work and no play. Nor should they copy the European model, with more leisure time but often higher unemployment. Instead, Canadians need to develop their own models of prosperity, the report concludes.
Besides, just because Americans are working longer doesn’t mean they’re working harder. The average U.S. worker wastes 1.86 hours per eight-hour workday, an AOL survey found last month.
The ICAP is a non-profit organization, the research arm of Ontario’s task force on competitiveness, productivity and economic progress.
