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The purpose of the present report is to contribute to a better understanding of how women and men are adjusting to changes in benefit levels as a result of the Employment Insurance (EI) Act. Specifically, we investigate the relative incomes of wives and husbands, paying particular attention to couples with children. The main focus of attention here is the EI Family Supplement (FS), with special reference to two-earner families with children.

Early administrative data indicate that the FS has provided a substantially higher income top-up to eligible individuals. However, a gender impact analysis should also take into account the situations of ineligible individuals, as well as those of eligible individuals. It is at the line between eligibility and ineligibility that the issues addressed in the present report arise.

The report uses 1997 data from the Canadian Out of Employment Panel (COEP) Survey, together with administrative data from Human Resources Development Canada’s (HRDC) employment insurance files, to analyze the situations of husbands and wives in families where there has been an employment separation. The empirical foundation is a National Database of 26,384 survey respondents, which was produced by integrating data from seven COEP cohorts that were all interviewed at some time during 1997. From this sample, a subsample of individuals in couples was selected. The subsample, which is the basis for the analysis in this report, consists of 12,773 persons who experienced a job separation and who had a co-resident spouse at the time of interview in a household that did not contain any other adults. In order to examine potential implications of the EI program for families, the principal factors analyzed are as follows: EI benefits filtering, FS filtering, relative income, financial dependence and economic stress. The report contains 17 tables.