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In 1996, the Federal Government began phasing in changes to the employment insurance system. One of the important changes to the Employment Insurance (EI) system was the transition from a week-based to an hour-based system of accounting for insured earnings. One motivation for this change was to provide fairer coverage for those who worked many hours during constrained seasons or spells of employment. In particular, this new system should be more equitable for seasonal workers that often work many hours over a constrained number of weeks. However, a recent evaluation study on seasonal workers found that not all seasonal workers benefited from the change to an hour-based system.²

This study follows up on the findings of the evaluation report and concerns that seasonal workers earning less than $12,000 were unfavorably impacted by EI reforms. In particular, it examines the characteristics of these individuals and analyzes the association between the change to an hour-based system and the corresponding decrease in the likelihood that seasonal workers earning less than $12,000 would qualify for EI benefits. Although individuals earning less than $2,000 are reimbursed all the EI premiums that they pay, the report focuses principally on the attributes of those seasonal workers that earned less than $12,000 and do not qualify for EI benefits regardless of whether or not their premiums are reimbursed.

Footnotes

2	See "An Evaluation Overview of Seasonal Employment," Evaluation and Data Development (EDD), April 2000.