Persistence of low income among non-elderly unattached individuals : Persistance du faible revenu chez les personnes seules non âgées

Hatfield (2004) incorporated dimensions of incidence and depth of low income to examine the persistence of low income by comparing cumulative family income to a cumulative amount of pre-defined low income threshold. [...] The dependent variable in all four models is the number of years in low income, with the four models differing in terms of what this number is (the reference state), the set of explanatory variables used, and whether the data consists exclusively of unattached individuals, or also includes major income earners in families to allow for comparison. [...] Men and women faced comparable incidences of persistent low income of most durations, but a smaller proportion of men compared to women faced the most persistent type of low income in our study – the experience of low income for all six years. [...] Source: Statistics Canada, Survey of Labour and Income Dynamics A minimum of about one in five unattached Canadians aged 45 to 64 experienced this time of persistent low income, and the incidence of this persistent low income rose to between 25% and 34% for those that unattached individuals who remained unattached throughout the six years. [...] Roughly 74% of the not employed lived in low income for at least one year out of six, compared to 32% of the employed and 64% of the self-employed.