Analysis

The papers in this series are based on the Survey of Financial Security which is a study of what families own (assets) and what they owe (debts). Various topics are covered by this survey, such as the value of family assets (home; other property; vehicles; bank accounts; term deposits; life insurance; and investments in registered savings plans, bonds, mutual funds, stocks, etc.), the amount of family debts (amount owed on mortgages, car loans, credit cards, other charge accounts, student loans, etc.), major on-going expenses for housing and child care, and any employer pensions plans that members of the family belong to. Information is also available on the demographic, employment, income and educational characteristics of family members. This research paper series covers various topics relating to survey content, concepts and operations.

Amidst the financial crisis and changes in the labour market, retirement savings plans are subject to greater scrutiny. The retirement income system in Canada stands on both public and private retirement savings plans. This article describes the coverage of Canadian workers by private retirement savings plans. Using cross-sectional tax data from the T1 Family File, we describe the coverage of Canadian employed tax filers aged 15 or more by employer-sponsored pension plans (EPPs) and whether or not they contributed to Registered Retirement Savings Plans (RRSPs) in 1997, 2000, 2003, 2006 and 2008. The share of employed tax filers participating in either type of plan declined from 54% in 1997 to 50% in 2008 and this is mainly driven by a decreasing share of employed tax filers contributing to a RRSP. The share of employed tax filers participating in an EPP remained fairly stable over the period.

In 2006, 37% of the employed Canadian population was covered by a registered pension plan. Defined benefit plans have historically covered the majority of plan participants. Defined contribution plans have recently become more prominent. This article examines the increased prevalence of such plans in Canada between 1991 and 2006 and the factors influencing this trend.

Prime-aged couples experienced a moderate decline in RPP coverage over the last two decades, as the substantial growth in wives labour market participation and the slight increase in their RPP coverage only partially offset a substantial decline in husbands coverage. On average, retirement savings of families rose over the last two decades, but the distribution became more unequal. To a large extent, the uneven growth in retirement savings mirrors the sharp increase in family earnings inequality since the early 1980s.

These products present extensive historical, up-to-date and detailed information covering the following topics: Old Age Security programs, registered pension plans (RPPs), registered retirement savings plans (RRSPs), trusteed pension funds, pension adjustment (PA), retirement compensation arrangements (RCAs), Canada Pension Plan (CPP) and Quebec Pension Plan (QPP).

These products will be useful for a wide audience, including pension professionals (e.g., employee benefit and investment specialists), employers and policy analysts, as well as educational institutions whose curricula cover these increasingly important programs.

Important note: Please refer to the content note for specifics concerning the information available in each medium.

This document presents the results of the Pension Plans in Canada Survey as of January 1, 2003. It gives a brief overview of changes over time in the participation of men and women in registered pension plans, the coverage of the labour force by these plans, membership in defined benefit and defined contribution plans, and total contributions paid into these plans. The document also briefly describes retirement compensation arrangements with an analysis covering the period 1991 to 2001.

This paper reports the results of an empirical analysis of the early career outcomes of recent Canadian Bachelor's level graduates by discipline based on three waves of the National Graduates Surveys, which comprise large, representative databases of individuals who successfully completed their programmes at Canadian universities in 1982, 1986, and 1990, with information gathered during interviews conducted two and five years after graduation for each group of graduates (1984/87, 1988/92, 1990/95).

The outcomes analysed, all broken down by sex and discipline, include: the distribution of graduates by field and the percentage of female graduates; the percentage of graduates who subsequently completed another educational programme; the overall evaluation of the choice of major (would they choose it again?); unemployment rates, the percentage of workers in part-time jobs, in temporary jobs, self-employed; the job-education skill and credentials matches; earnings levels and rates of growth; and job satisfaction (earnings, overall).

Many of the outcomes conform to expectations, typically reflecting the different orientations of the various disciplines with respect to direct career preparedness, with the professions and other applied disciplines generally characterised by lower unemployment rates, closer skill and qualification matches, higher earnings, and so on. On the other hand, while the "applied" fields also tend to perform well in terms of the "softer", more subjective measures regarding job satisfaction and the overall evaluation of the chosen programme (would the graduate choose the same major again?), the findings also indicate that graduates' assessments of their post-graduation experiences and overall evaluations of the programmes from which they graduated are based on more than simply adding up standard measures of labour market "success", with the job satisfaction scores and - perhaps most interestingly - the overall programme evaluations often departing from what the objective measures (unemployment rates, earnings levels, etc.) might have predicted. Some implications of the findings are discussed and avenues for future research are suggested.

This paper presents the findings of an empirical investigation of the effects of inter-provincial migration on individuals' earnings based on the newly available Longitudinal Administrative Database (LAD). The main results are based on a difference model which estimates the effects of mobility on (log) earnings which implicitly controls for initial earnings levels and other fixed effects, as well as other influences captured by the regressors included in the models. Inter-provincial mobility is found to be associated with statistically significant and in many cases quantitatively substantial changes in individuals' earnings, with these effects varying by age, sex, and province of origin. Pre- and post-move earnings profiles are also analysed, offering support for the validity of the difference model approach and indicating that movers are quickly integrated into local labour markets after their moves. Implications are discussed and possible directions for future research are suggested.

In this paper, we assemble data from several household surveys to document how pension coverage of young and older workers has evolved in Canada between the mid-1980s and the mid-1990s. Our main findings are the following. First, both administrative data from the Pension Plans in Canada (PPIC) database and data from household surveys show an increase in RPP coverage for women. In contrast, while PPIC data show a decrease in coverage for men, household surveys indicate no downward trend for males. Second, sample aggregates hide interesting differences within the population. We find that the pension coverage of young workers (aged 25-34) has declined relative to older workers (aged 35-54). Young males have experienced a decline in coverage while RPP coverage has remained fairly stable for older men. In contrast, pension coverage has remained fairly constant for young women but has risen substantially for older women. Third, the decline in unionism and shifts towards industries with low-coverage explain most of the decrease in coverage observed among young men. Fourth, the growth in older women's coverage appears to be the result of their greater propensity to be employed in highly paid/highly covered occupations.

This document presents the results of the Pension Plans in Canada Survey as of January 1, 2003. It gives a brief overview of changes over time in the participation of men and women in registered pension plans, the coverage of the labour force by these plans, membership in defined benefit and defined contribution plans, and total contributions paid into these plans. The document also briefly describes retirement compensation arrangements with an analysis covering the period 1991 to 2001.

Amidst the financial crisis and changes in the labour market, retirement savings plans are subject to greater scrutiny. The retirement income system in Canada stands on both public and private retirement savings plans. This article describes the coverage of Canadian workers by private retirement savings plans. Using cross-sectional tax data from the T1 Family File, we describe the coverage of Canadian employed tax filers aged 15 or more by employer-sponsored pension plans (EPPs) and whether or not they contributed to Registered Retirement Savings Plans (RRSPs) in 1997, 2000, 2003, 2006 and 2008. The share of employed tax filers participating in either type of plan declined from 54% in 1997 to 50% in 2008 and this is mainly driven by a decreasing share of employed tax filers contributing to a RRSP. The share of employed tax filers participating in an EPP remained fairly stable over the period.

In 2006, 37% of the employed Canadian population was covered by a registered pension plan. Defined benefit plans have historically covered the majority of plan participants. Defined contribution plans have recently become more prominent. This article examines the increased prevalence of such plans in Canada between 1991 and 2006 and the factors influencing this trend.

Prime-aged couples experienced a moderate decline in RPP coverage over the last two decades, as the substantial growth in wives labour market participation and the slight increase in their RPP coverage only partially offset a substantial decline in husbands coverage. On average, retirement savings of families rose over the last two decades, but the distribution became more unequal. To a large extent, the uneven growth in retirement savings mirrors the sharp increase in family earnings inequality since the early 1980s.

This paper reports the results of an empirical analysis of the early career outcomes of recent Canadian Bachelor's level graduates by discipline based on three waves of the National Graduates Surveys, which comprise large, representative databases of individuals who successfully completed their programmes at Canadian universities in 1982, 1986, and 1990, with information gathered during interviews conducted two and five years after graduation for each group of graduates (1984/87, 1988/92, 1990/95).

The outcomes analysed, all broken down by sex and discipline, include: the distribution of graduates by field and the percentage of female graduates; the percentage of graduates who subsequently completed another educational programme; the overall evaluation of the choice of major (would they choose it again?); unemployment rates, the percentage of workers in part-time jobs, in temporary jobs, self-employed; the job-education skill and credentials matches; earnings levels and rates of growth; and job satisfaction (earnings, overall).

Many of the outcomes conform to expectations, typically reflecting the different orientations of the various disciplines with respect to direct career preparedness, with the professions and other applied disciplines generally characterised by lower unemployment rates, closer skill and qualification matches, higher earnings, and so on. On the other hand, while the "applied" fields also tend to perform well in terms of the "softer", more subjective measures regarding job satisfaction and the overall evaluation of the chosen programme (would the graduate choose the same major again?), the findings also indicate that graduates' assessments of their post-graduation experiences and overall evaluations of the programmes from which they graduated are based on more than simply adding up standard measures of labour market "success", with the job satisfaction scores and - perhaps most interestingly - the overall programme evaluations often departing from what the objective measures (unemployment rates, earnings levels, etc.) might have predicted. Some implications of the findings are discussed and avenues for future research are suggested.

This paper presents the findings of an empirical investigation of the effects of inter-provincial migration on individuals' earnings based on the newly available Longitudinal Administrative Database (LAD). The main results are based on a difference model which estimates the effects of mobility on (log) earnings which implicitly controls for initial earnings levels and other fixed effects, as well as other influences captured by the regressors included in the models. Inter-provincial mobility is found to be associated with statistically significant and in many cases quantitatively substantial changes in individuals' earnings, with these effects varying by age, sex, and province of origin. Pre- and post-move earnings profiles are also analysed, offering support for the validity of the difference model approach and indicating that movers are quickly integrated into local labour markets after their moves. Implications are discussed and possible directions for future research are suggested.

In this paper, we assemble data from several household surveys to document how pension coverage of young and older workers has evolved in Canada between the mid-1980s and the mid-1990s. Our main findings are the following. First, both administrative data from the Pension Plans in Canada (PPIC) database and data from household surveys show an increase in RPP coverage for women. In contrast, while PPIC data show a decrease in coverage for men, household surveys indicate no downward trend for males. Second, sample aggregates hide interesting differences within the population. We find that the pension coverage of young workers (aged 25-34) has declined relative to older workers (aged 35-54). Young males have experienced a decline in coverage while RPP coverage has remained fairly stable for older men. In contrast, pension coverage has remained fairly constant for young women but has risen substantially for older women. Third, the decline in unionism and shifts towards industries with low-coverage explain most of the decrease in coverage observed among young men. Fourth, the growth in older women's coverage appears to be the result of their greater propensity to be employed in highly paid/highly covered occupations.

The papers in this series are based on the Survey of Financial Security which is a study of what families own (assets) and what they owe (debts). Various topics are covered by this survey, such as the value of family assets (home; other property; vehicles; bank accounts; term deposits; life insurance; and investments in registered savings plans, bonds, mutual funds, stocks, etc.), the amount of family debts (amount owed on mortgages, car loans, credit cards, other charge accounts, student loans, etc.), major on-going expenses for housing and child care, and any employer pensions plans that members of the family belong to. Information is also available on the demographic, employment, income and educational characteristics of family members. This research paper series covers various topics relating to survey content, concepts and operations.

These products present extensive historical, up-to-date and detailed information covering the following topics: Old Age Security programs, registered pension plans (RPPs), registered retirement savings plans (RRSPs), trusteed pension funds, pension adjustment (PA), retirement compensation arrangements (RCAs), Canada Pension Plan (CPP) and Quebec Pension Plan (QPP).

These products will be useful for a wide audience, including pension professionals (e.g., employee benefit and investment specialists), employers and policy analysts, as well as educational institutions whose curricula cover these increasingly important programs.

Important note: Please refer to the content note for specifics concerning the information available in each medium.